American Bred Episode 8: The Child I Once Was
by American Companion
Summary: When Katie was yanked through the Rift, something came through with her. Now it's returning, and bringing Katie's past with it. Katie's sanity is pushed to the brink as the thing toys with her mind, and the Doctor is powerless to help.
1. Chapter 1

Katie blinked, letting the world come into focus. With a smile, she realized that she had actually been asleep. That didn't happen very often, especially not now, what with the Rift energy constantly pouring into her.

Glancing at the clock on her desk, her smile broadened when she discovered she had been asleep for a full hour. Another score. Today should be good. And of course, the shape that had haunted her since she fell through the Rift hadn't shown up for a full week. If he…it, could stay away today, this would definitely be a memorable day.

Wandering further into storage, Katie started her percolator going and changed into an exercise outfit. After running a few miles on the treadmill, she drank her coffee and showered, putting on long a long sleeve shirt and jeans afterwards. On her way back to her desk, she drew another tally mark on the wall.

She frowned, pausing to count them. Four months exactly. Katie sighed, wishing she hadn't started. The first tally marks had been as a personal joke, expecting to be gone in a couple of weeks. Now the irony of her actions laughed at her.

Turning away, she went to her desk to continue her current project, though her mind wasn't really on it. It had been four months since she last saw the Doctor, four months since she was yanked through the Rift. Now, she was trapped on earth, stranded in the worst possible place to be: smack in the middle of TORCHWOOD Three.

Katie smiled lightly. Well, really it was the Rift that made it a bad place for her. TORCHWOOD itself wasn't so bad. The people were tolerable most of the time and they left her alone the rest of the time. It was still a pain that she could only go outside at night, and then only to one place, but TORCHWOOD was nice otherwise. Lots of alien stuff to play with, a shooting range, a personal laboratory…there were worse places to be stranded.

Pulling a box from out of her desk drawer, she removed several pieces of technology. It was a new thing, but it would be around in a few years anyway. Still, it would be a big help to her.

Katie was piecing together what would soon be used the world over as an insulin pump. For diabetics making use of it, all they had to do was enter in the necessary information and the appropriate amount of insulin would be injected into their system through a needle they would wear all day. Katie was going to do something similar, but with deadly diseases.

Now, ordinarily Katie wouldn't be giving herself the plague on purpose, but the energy from the Rift was so thick and intense that she could and would overload, erasing all morals and personal restraints she had, turning her into a power-hungry monster that would kill anything it came across. She would constantly eat or inject herself with illnesses to help burn off the energy. It never lasted for any great length of time, so she was trying to create a pump that would constantly send trickles of diseases into her blood stream, thus giving her greater freedom.

An hour later, she was finished and soon thereafter had it attached to her. She used two separate needles, one for constant AIDS and the other for whatever she felt like that day.

Putting several refill pouches into her bag, she wandered upstairs with another addition to the computer she planned to hook up.

The Hub was particularly busy that morning, with everyone doing something. "What's the buzz over?" Katie asked Toshiko "Tosh" Sato, the resident computer and technology whiz.

"There was a murder at the David Morgan Apartments just off Baker's Row. Mother, Father, and two children. The neighbors said that it looked as though the residents were killed by a mirage, and the TORCHWOOD logo was painted on the wall. We were called in to check it out."

"Supposed to be horrible, blood all over the walls, organs missing." Owen Harper's face, set in a permanent look of sarcasm, raised its eyebrows. "Can't wait to see it myself."

Katie walked up to him, peering at the center of his forehead. In two fluid movements she wiped an alcohol pad across it and shot something into him with a small gun.

"What the hell was that for Jo?" he asked in irritation as he rubbed his forehead.

She grinned at him, pleased they still didn't know her real name. "Now we can all see. I stuck a miniscule video camera in your head. Also picks up sound. Once I plug the receiver in, those of us left at the Hub should have a perfect view of whatever it you see. If it works, it'll be even better than your Eye-5's for some missions. It even records everything, so if all you do is catch a glimpse of something, you can go back and take a closer look later." Turning from Owen, Katie sat down in a chair next to Tosh. "How's the signal chip doing?" she asked in Japanese. Tosh smiled, responding in the same language.

"Almost there," she said. "We'll be able to call your Doctor very soon."

Katie grinned broadly. "Oh, things just keep getting better."

"It's rude to use a language no one else understands," Jack said, coming down the stairs. Katie raised an eyebrow at him. In her thickest possible Texan drawl, she asked,

"I was always taught to try an communicate with others the way they understood it best, but if you'd rather I speak the way I was born and bred, I can do that too."

"What on earth was that?" Gwen asked, her Welsh accent an interesting contrast. Katie grinned.

"Just how folk down in Texas communicate, mam. Can't quite copy your speech, so we fall back on our own."

"Where did you pick up Texan?" Jack asked.

"I told ya'll; I was raised that way. Now all ya'lls better get a move on before something happens to your crime scene!"

It didn't take Katie very long to hook up the receiver. She put on her own headset and sat next to Tosh, feeling like a child going to work with a much loved aunt.

"Owen, I want to make sure this picture is coming through clearly," Tosh said. Katie marveled at how she could sound so confident while talking about technology, while being so nervous and timid the rest of the time.

"I'm not singing for you."

"Why not?" Katie asked. "You've got a nice tenor, I've heard it. Okay, you just ran a red light."

"No backseat driving!" Owen protested. Katie stifled a laugh. Oh, today was definitely a red-letter day. She could use more like this.

"The license plate number of the car in front of you is…CF07QDE."

"Correct on all accounts."

Katie pumped her fist silently in the air, grinning.

Ianto brought down drinks for the three of them, tea for him and Tosh, and a black coffee for Katie. Katie took it with thanks, and they all chatted quietly. Katie was on good terms with all of TORCHWOOD, but she shared a stronger connection with Tosh and Ianto. They were the support group, hardly ever leaving the Hub, but holding up the team all the same. It was good, Katie decided. She liked having a stable life to belong to, a pattern to follow. Not that she would think twice about joining the Doctor when she contacted him again, but until then, life was good.

The live feed showed Owen walking up stairs. One of the normal police cautioned them against the gore, then let them past.

When the door opened, Katie could feel the blood drain from her face. It was like the most graphic horror movie of all time, but it was real. Organs and limbs were stacked neatly in the corners, huge lacerations on what was left of the bodies showing that they had died in pain. Blood had been used to paint and write all over the walls. The sick part of that was that the pictures were wonderfully done, as if by a master artist, and the words were in calligraphy. It was as though whoever had done this had only regarded the family as pots of red ink for their horrendous work.

Ianto gave a rare swear as Tosh got up and stepped away from the screen, her face a sickly green. Katie kept staring, realizing what the pictures were.

"Owen, I hate to ask this, but could you take a closer look at those paintings?"

"Yeah. Yeah sure."

He stepped into the room. Katie felt fear rising in her throat. The pictures seemed random, as though one had nothing to do with the other. She knew better.

The whole thing was arranged as a circle. Gang signs she knew didn't come from Cardiff. A molecular structure for a powerful mind-altering drug. Initials belonging to people she tried to forget or knew were dead. A date that had passed twice for her now, once from her life as a human and once while she was part of TORCHWOOD. Faces that belonged only in her mind. Off to the side, almost as an afterthought, was the TORCHWOOD 'T'. All of this swirled around one name, a name she had tried hard to erase.

_**Kavrin.**_

Katie went ridged as the voice rang in her ears. She abruptly stood, knocking her chair over. Ripping off her head set, she took off running as hard as she could for the front door. Ianto's protests rang faintly in her ears as the seal closed behind her.

* * *

><p>"Jack, Jo's gotten out. I repeat, Josephine Cole is on the loose."<p>

"What!"

As Jack turned away from the sight before him, Tosh's voice continued with the news. "She saw the feed from the thing she implanted in Owen, and just took off!"

"Why the hell would she do that?" Gwen's voice said through the coms.

"I don't know, but she looked terrified. More scared than I thought anyone could be."

Jack thought quickly. Jo was not someone you just let run about a city full of people. "Tosh, are you almost done with the homing signal?"

"Yes."

"Drop whatever you're doing and finish it. She's had plenty of time to find out about all the hiding spots here in Cardiff, and we won't be able to stop her when she goes mad. You need to finish that signaling chip and get the Doctor here pronto. Have Ianto see if he can find her signal and track it. I want an update as soon as you have something."

"We'll get right on it."

* * *

><p>Katie pelted down the street, people flashing by her at an absurd rate. She pushed them aside, not caring what damage she did. She had to get to that apartment, had to see it for herself. The message was obviously left for her. It all combined to the single most painful event in her life, and events afterward. Even the family size fit her life. The TORCHWOOD symbol was only there to let her know that the person who did it knew her current location, and would likely be coming for her. But who would know something like that? They would have had to dive into her mind, and gone through the darkest corners for that story.<p>

Katie poured on more speed until she felt her hearts near the bursting point. Everything was a blur of colors, single objects no longer existing. The only thing that she could think of was that gruesome collage.

She slowed slightly, knowing she was nearing the apartments. It was easy enough to pick out, with all the police cars. Shoving past officers and ducking under the tape, Katie turned into the door, instead crashing straight into Jack.

"Jo, you can't be here. You have to get back to the Hub."

"Jack, I have to get past. Let me through."

"No. Owen is taking you back right now."

"Jack!"

He looked sharply at her, something in her tone making him listen. She swallowed hard. "Jack, this is something that I can't explain right now. But right now, you have to trust me. Look," she said, leaning back a little so that he could see her. "My hearts are here on my left side, and on either side of my chest. A bullet through my brain would also work. Shoot me if I really lose it, but let me past. Please."

For one terrifying moment, Katie thought he wasn't going to let her in. Then he stepped slightly to the side and Katie brushed past him.

Ignoring Owen and Gwen, who both stood abruptly as she came in, she walked to the wall with the mural. Hand on her mouth, all she could do was stare. It was more horrifying up close.

Her eyes caught sight of another sentence hidden halfway behind a bookcase, somehow painted to only be seen if the person was at her height and near the wall. Latching on to the side of it, she pulled it away from the wall, eliciting protests from Gwen.

"We haven't finished here!"

Green eyes cold as fire and blazing like ice, Katie looked at Gwen. Gwen stepped back, stunned by the intensity. Katie turned back to studying the sentence and the picture under it. It took her a few moments before she realized it was a code she had only used with her brother when she was still human. Once she figured that out, translation was easy. She wished it hadn't been.

_Guess who's next._

Under the sentence was a perfect picture of the TARDIS's console room, a human shape standing next to it.

A half-strangled squeak came out of Katie's throat as she stumbled backwards. Pushing past Jack, Katie leaned over the railing trying to breathe, horror written across her face.

"Jo?"

Katie's mouth moved, but no sound came out. He eyes danced across the street, landing on an alleyway. That's when she saw the figure.

"Doctor."

"What about him?"

Katie ignored Jack. Seeming to forget the stairs, she jumped over the railing, landing on her feet and taking off running.

"Doctor!"

The man moved farther down the alley and turned a corner. Katie ran faster. "Doctor!"

Katie spun around the corner and stopped. There he stood, that man she had longed for daily, thought of hourly. The man with the blue box, her best friend in all of time and space, the one man she could ever trust. He grinned at her, obvious delight on his features and she knew that somehow, everything would turn out alright.

Pin-stripes had never looked so good.

Katie dashed forward, throwing her arms around his neck as her wrapped her in a hug.

"Hello Kathryn. It's good to see you again."

"I knew you'd find me!"

"I'll always come for you."

She stayed there, eyes closed, relishing the remembered smell of him, sinking into the feeling of safety he always carried with him.

A light beeping filtered through her joy. Opening her eyes, she noticed the timer behind the Doctor, instantly recognizing its use.

"Doctor, I hate to cause problems so soon, but there's a bomb behind you."

"I know."

Katie jerked her head back, shocked at the calm way he said it. "Maybe you didn't hear me. There is a bomb in this alleyway, and it will go off in five minutes."

"Don't worry, it'll only take a corner of the building. Well, and you."

The sensation of security rapidly falling away, Katie struggled, placing her hands on his chest and trying to break his hold, which was now painfully tight. "Doctor, let me go. Someone in there could get killed. We need to turn it off!"

"No we don't," he replied calmly. Moving one arm, the man placed a hand against Katie's face, holding it tightly. She stared at him, fear starting to leech into her eyes. The man holding her could not be the Doctor. It was impossible. Her energy absorption never worked on him, yet she could feel energy moving between them. With a start, Katie realized he was taking _her_ energy at the same time that she took his. They would have been in perfect balance, had Katie not been wearing the disease pump. It was using up energy, and she worried that she couldn't hold on.

Her face feeling on fire, she tried to fight back her terror as she asked,

"Who are you?"

The man smiled, the cruelest look that Katie had ever seen on the Doctor's face. "Oh Kavrin," he said, his voice a smooth whisper. He leaned in next to her ear, the move a very personal one. "I'm the one you left behind."

Katie felt a wetness cover her hand, the smell telling her it was blood, the hole under her fingers where the heart belonged confirming it. She looked back up at the man's face, which started to change. A hole appeared between his eyes, just the right size for a bullet as the rest of his features changed. The timer on the bomb went un-heeded as she stared, unable to speak. She swallowed hard, forcing the words out.

"Bradley…but…you're dead."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Katie felt weak, so very weak. But she couldn't die, not here, not now. Not in an alleyway in Cardiff. Certainly not by his hand, oh-so-fitting as it was. Feebly, she tried pushing against him. The man just continued to stare into her eyes, enjoying her helplessness.

"I'm sorry…" she whispered, a corner of her mind hoping he would respond the way she had always wanted him to. That corner shriveled as his smile broadened, relishing her pain.

The thought crossed Katie's mind that she would have liked to see the Doctor once again, to step into TARDIS just one more time, to really say goodbye. The face changed again, reverting back to the Doctor. Anger flared up inside her. Bad enough this stranger should pretend to be Bradley, but once again impersonating the Doctor, the only person who ever had a chance of understanding and trusting her?

She wasn't gonna take it.

Sharply snapping her head, she latched her teeth around her attacker's thumb, ripping it off with another violent movement. He screeched, backing up, his body flickering as though he couldn't hold the shape. Katie spat the thumb out into her hand, stuffing it into her pocket as she took off running back to the apartments, ramming slap into Jack. She seemed to be doing that a lot.

"Jo, what the hell is—you're covered in blood!"

"Can you disarm a bomb?"

"Yeah, but why—"

Katie grabbed him by the wrist and started dragging him down the alleyway. "Good, because there's one back here."

Jack yanked her back, turning his hands so that he held her by the wrists. "Jo, calm down. You've been running about and—"

Twisting her arms and breaking Jack's hold on her, she danced backwards. "Jack, lecture me later. There is a bomb in the alleyway and it needs to be shut down."

"Did you set it up?"

"No! Yes. Maybe. It could be my fault, I don't know. I can't explain. Just, go fix it. And if someone gets in your way, kill him. Do me that favor and get rid of him."

"Jo—"

Katie stumbled off down the lane back to the apartments without waiting for Jack to finish. She thought about going up, to see if there was something else that she had missed, and then dismissed the idea. All of this was just too much. Any more strain and she would snap.

* * *

><p>At the TORCHWOOD Hub, Tosh looked proudly at the finished computer chip, now fully functional and broadcasting. Josephine had shown up with a burnt out one in a wallet when she first appeared four months back. It had been something that Tosh hadn't even made yet, so temporally her newly finished creation and the original one were the same thing. It was truly a brilliant piece of work, no one could deny it. Five different species, five different times, and five different planets all mashing together to make a tracking and homing device. There was only one possible signal it could send out, one she hoped the Doctor was scanning for, somehow. Though Jack had called in that Josephine had shown up at the murder sight, she was running wild, terrified, and most likely charged since she had left her bag behind. This man she spoke so highly of was probably their only chance to calm her down.<p>

These thoughts took only a second to cross Tosh's mind. In the next instant, a wind started up inside the Hub, accompanied by a wheezing sound. Tosh and Ianto both looked down towards the pool at the buildings base. A blue box that looked rather like a phone booth faded into view in time with the wheezing noise. With the sound of a final thud, the door swung open and a tall, thin man in a blue pin-stripe suit dashed out, staring frantically about. His eyes landed on Tosh and Ianto and he bounded up the stairs to the small pavilion the computers sat on, his trench coat flaring out behind him.

"Where is she?"

"Are you the Doctor?" Ianto asked as he stood, calm as ever in his suit.

"Yes. Where's Kathryn?"

Ianto and Tosh shared a glance, one the man did not miss. "Where is she?" he demanded, his voice taking on a harsh edge.

"There isn't anyone by the name of Kathryn here," Ianto said.

"Maybe there is," Tosh interrupted him. "She has ginger hair and green eyes. Very American, and has a habit of absorbing energy from the air around her."

"Yes, that's Kathryn. Where is she?"

"She's with Jack right now," Ianto said. "But she should be back soon."

"She's alone with Jack? Captain Jack Harkness? She's only fifteen!"

"Not alone. Owen and Gwen are there as well. They're bringing her back."

"Back from where?" the Doctor said, his voice growing dangerous.

"A murder that we only started investigating today. She saw a picture of it through the video feed and just took off, completely terrified."

The Doctor's brow furrowed in puzzlement. Tosh hurried over to the computer and brought up a still image of the blood mural. "Here. Maybe you can tell us what would spook her like that."

The Doctor peered at it, confused. "Not really. I know that the molecular bond there is for opium, and one of her human names was Kavrin, but otherwise it makes no sense."

"She's been using a lot of pseudonyms lately."

"Why, what did she call herself this time?" the Doctor asked Ianto.

"Josephine Cole. Is there any significance behind it?"

"She mentioned once that it was the name she thought a heroine in a book should have."

The round door that served as a seal from the outside gave a hiss and rolled to the side. Gwen and Owen strode in, followed by Jack and Kathryn, he looking peeved and she covered in blood and tired. The Doctor grinned, overjoyed to see her again, whatever state she might be in.

Katie and Jack both caught sight of the Doctor at the same time. Jack gave his customary flirtatious smile, but Katie's face instantly turned to one of terror. In one swift movement, she pulled Jack's gun from its holster and fired a shot at the Doctor.

He felt the bullet clip his ear as Jack attempted to restrain Katie. Before anyone else had a chance to react, she had flipped him onto his back and pressed herself against the wall, gun held in two hands, eyes shut tight. The Doctor knew that this was to give her a third person view of the whole room in energy waves.

"All you people step backwards carefully, and if I see a hand go below an ear I will blow it off. Jack you go with them. Not you," Katie snapped when the Doctor started to back up. "All I want you to do is step away from that computer and to tell me how the hell you got in here."

"Kathryn, tell me what's going on," he said in a calm voice.

"No, you tell me!" Katie leaned forward slightly as she spoke. "Last time I saw you, you tried to kill me."

"Jo, what the—"

"Jack, you will stay out of this. I want to know what he's doing here."

"Jo—"

"My name's Kathryn Trouble Moore, and this sick twisted freak is about to get into a shitload of it if he doesn't start talking!"

"Josephine…Kathryn, you had us signal him," Tosh said quietly in Japanese. The Doctor saw Katie's eyelids flicker in response and a minute amount of tension leave her body. "Remember? I finished the chip a few minutes ago. The Doctor showed up in a blue phone box like you said he would."

"An hour ago he was sucking the energy out of me and morphing into—" Katie got impossibly tenser. "How the hell did you even know about him?" she hissed. "The Doctor I understand; he's part of my life right now. But there is no way you could have known he existed."

"Kathryn, I have no idea what or who you're talking about. And stop swearing, it doesn't become you."

Katie opened her eyes for a split second before closing them again. "How did you get it to grow back?"

"Pardon?"

"Your thumb, moron! I bit it off!" Katie cut off any explanation with her own observation. "No, I suppose that with all that energy you absorbed from me, re-growing fingers isn't a problem."

"Kathryn, I think you're confused."

"Oh, you're good, I'll give you that. You look, sound, walk, and even smell like the Doctor, but you just tried to kill me. I want to know who you are, what you want, and how you know about him."

"Him who?"

"Bradley, you idiot!"

"Kathryn," the Doctor said, stepping forward. Katie jerked the gun threateningly.

"Take a step closer and I will put another hole through the center of your head."

The Doctor took a deep breath, trying to understand what was happening. He had spent a week using the database on the TARDIS to search histories for any sign that Katie had been there without him. Finally, the TARDIS had found a signal perfectly identical to the chip that had been in the wallet Katie had picked up on the rift planet. He had come immediately, only to be shot at by his friend. TORCHWOOD couldn't have done something like this to her, so it had to be deeper. It sounded as though she had been expecting him, but now that he had come, she thought he was trying to kill her, or had already attempted it.

The Doctor studied Katie's ridged form. She was obviously terrified, even more so than the day they first met. And then there was the mysterious "Bradley." Did it have something to do with the sickening paintings she had seen, something that had to do with the past she had insisted he stay out of?

The report of a gun made the Doctor jump as Jack collapsed next to him, a bullet in his heart.

"Kathryn!"

"Jack will be fine. I am on edge and a great shot. Next person to try rushing me gets the same."

The Doctor rubbed the bridge of his nose with one hand, keeping the other up. "Kathryn, do you trust…" He turned halfway around, giving Tosh a curious look. "What was your name?"

"Toshiko Sato."

"Oh, brilliant name. Genius Child isn't it?"

Tosh nodded nervously as the Doctor turned back to Katie. "You trust her, don't you?"

"A hell of a lot more than I do you right now."

"Then can you take her at her word that the TARDIS is here?"

Katie hesitated, and then said, "It's not the TARDIS. It's just TARDIS. She isn't an it."

The Doctor couldn't help smiling, just a little. Jack woke up suddenly with a gasp that the Doctor ignored. "If Jack stays where he is, could you open your eyes long enough to look near the pond to check?" the Doctor said, knowing that TARDIS could and usually did hide all forms of energy output. She wouldn't show while Katie observed the world through energy.

"He needs to get back first. I don't like him much on good days, and right now is not a good time for him to be near me."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows, glancing at Jack. "Someone you can't flirt with. I'm impressed."

Jack shot the Doctor a dirty look as he stood slowly. "She did kiss me once, you know."

"I was trying to kill him," Katie said, her voice losing some edge. "He's stuffed full of time energy, and it makes me nervous," Katie said. "Now, please step back. I really don't want to kill you…again."

Jack did so. Katie hesitated for another moment, then slowly opened her eyes, returning to normal vision. It made the Doctor's hearts break to see just how scared of him she was. Keeping the gun pointed squarely at his chest, she glanced towards the pool of water, looked back at the Doctor, then took a longer glance. She blinked and swallowed hard, still unsure.

"The rest of you stay there. You in the stripes, step forward slowly please."

The Doctor slowly stepped towards Katie. When he was about five yards from her, she told him to stop, then crept forward towards him. When the barrel of the gun was set against his chest, she reached cautiously out towards his face. He kept his eyes locked with hers, trying to let her see that it was really him, and he meant her no harm.

Katie gently touched his cheek, jerking back a second later. She reached forward again, this time laying her hand against his face.

All the tension rushed from her body as she dropped the gun and fell against him, crying silently and holding onto him as though her life depended on it. He kicked the gun aside with his foot as he held her close. Answers could wait. For now, he had her back.

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

Katie took a shuddering breath, trying to bring herself back under control. She needed to be calm and rational about this, had to figure out what was going on.

But not right now. She didn't know how controlled she could be. First that painting, then the threat she thought was against the Doctor but was really meant for her, then the creature that had tried to kill her, then the real Doctor showed up…

It was just too much to not cry. Still, there was a time and a place for that, and that time and place was always after the threat was gone. Swallowing hard, she forced herself to relax her grip.

"Okay. I think I'm good."

Humor laced the Doctor's tone. "You owe me a clean shirt."

Katie choked out a laugh. His suit was a certainly a mess, with blood and tears now covering the front. Jack's voice broke into the touching scene.

"Glad we're all still alive and everything, but I'd like to know what the hell that was all about."

Katie let the Doctor out of the hug, slipping her hand into his. She wasn't willing to let go of him yet.

"Well," she said, leaving streaks of blood on her face as she wiped under her eyes. "How far back do you want me to go?"

"When you left the Hub, something you know isn't allowed."

The Doctor looked at Katie, puzzled. "Have they been holding you hostage?"

"No, I've been holding me hostage," Katie said with a sigh. "We're sitting right on top of the Rift, right? Well, the Rift is chock full of mixing energies from thousands of planets. The whole of Cardiff is drenched in the stuff. So, where does it all get to go?"

Comprehension dawned on the Doctor's features. "Right into you, and you can't handle that kind of power."

"Exactly. I get to turn into a ninja assassin with everybody as a target. It was actually a good thing Jack was around the first time I really overloaded. I tried to drain the energy out of him, and anyone else would have died." She made a face. "Once I woke up, I realized that I'd kissed him. That's when I threw up. First time I've been ill since meeting you."

The Doctor saw all of TORCHWOOD, minus Jack, try to hide a smile. He wasn't surprised. Jack could seduce anything that moved. A lonely fifteen year old girl should be the easiest target of all. Leave it to Katie to defy nature.

"You want me to repeat what you said about him?" Jack said, looking at Katie but pointing to the Doctor. Katie flushed purple.

"I was under the influence at the time."

"You've been drinking? Jack, what have you been doing to her?"

Katie glanced up at the Doctor, her look one of distracted disregard. "No, it was just drugs." She looked back at Jack. "It's not like you disagreed with me."

"That's me. I'm allowed to look."

"Well, you started the comparison between his previous regeneration and this one."

"Coming back to the subject at hand," Owen said brightly. "She's been keeping her energy level down by stabbing herself with needles and popping pills."

The Doctor stood completely horrified. Katie stepped forward towards Owen, unconsciously taking her hand out of the Doctor's and putting both hands on her hips.

"You're the one who ran the risk of infecting the Hub with AIDS. You should never mess around with things you don't understand."

"You did try to strip me," Jack said, aware of how speechless the Doctor was and conscious that he was just adding to his distress.

Katie raised an eyebrow. "You were the one standing over me when I only had a sheet to use for clothes. And then you refused to give mine back!"

"You do go on private outings with him," Ianto said. Owen and Gwen were keeping perfectly straight faces. Everyone but Katie seemed to be aware just how disturbed the Doctor was at the way things were sounding.

"That's because he's the only one who can work the transporter to the roof!"

"Time!"

Katie turned back to the Doctor. He could see the spark in her eyes that always came from her friendly arguments with him. "What?"

"Could I have some explanation, or do I assume TORCHWOOD has thoroughly corrupted you?"

Katie's eyes widened with realization of what she had been saying. "OH! No no no, it's not quite like that. Drugs as in painkillers, needles and pills as in diseases and poison to burn off energy, AIDS as in I was growing it in a controlled environment, stripping as in trying to kill through energy absorption, naked me as in medical table, and private outings as in there's only one place outside of the Hub I can exist without trying to kill someone."

The Doctor let that sink in. "Thank you. I feel much better now."

"Oh, that reminds me," Katie said, reaching her hand into her jeans pocket, which was stiff with blood. "I need you to take a look at this."

TORCHWOOD all pulled away, contrary to the Doctor's move which was to put on glasses and lean forward to examine the thumb Katie had just produced.

"That's disturbing."

"I have to agree with that," Owen said. "Kate, what are you doing with a thumb in your pocket?"

Katie turned and pointed the thumb at Owen. "Don't you ever call me Kate, Harper. It's Katie." She turned back to the Doctor. He didn't try to take the thumb from her, just looked at it with increasing puzzlement.

"A better question would be why it's doing that. Are you wearing gloves of any sort?"

"Nope. Bare skinned."

"Then how is it doing that?"

"Doing what?" Gwen asked, unable to see anything. Katie glanced at her.

"Last time I came in contact with an unattached piece of person, the unattached part turned into ashes almost instantly. I took all the energy out of it and it had no way to replenish."

"And this one isn't," the Doctor mused. "Are you getting anything?"

Katie nodded. "Yah. It's pulling the energy out of me at the same time I pull the energy from it, like it's some kind of conductor between my fingers."

"Fascinating."

Katie grinned. "I know," she said, her voice sincere behind the evident excitement. The Doctor glanced up at her, and they grinned at each other.

"I've got a lab in the basement."

The Doctor and Katie started off for Katie's corner of TORCHWOOD, the thumb held between them as they discussed why it was the way it was.

Gwen, Owen, Tosh, and Ianto turned to look at Jack, as if waiting for an explanation. "Just…be careful with the TARDIS. And if either of them asks for help, just give it. Owen, you and Gwen start processing what you found. Tosh, look though whatever footage Owen had, see if you can spot anything on it."

The crew nodded and dispersed. Ianto turned to Jack. "Is there anything in particular you need me for?"

"Yeah. Maybe you should take them something to drink, and whatever medical files we've made for J—Kathryn. They'll probably stay down there until they have the mystery solved."

* * *

><p>Katie leaned on the table, watching the Doctor slice part of the thumb off to better fit under a microscope, her medical files and a cup of tea at his elbow. She wasn't really watching him work, though. She kept staring at his face, unable to keep the small smile off of her own. The Doctor finally noticed and looked back at her. "What?"<p>

"I'm just so glad you're back."

"Miss me that much?" When Katie nodded in response, the Doctor smiled lightly, teasingly. "I didn't think you were that sentimental."

"It's been awhile, and I've been really bored." She gestured to the shelves all around them. "This is pretty much all I did. I wrote a couple of computer programs as well—okay, thirty-nine, one for every language I know, but this is really it."

The Doctor took in the size of it all. "How long has it been?"

"Four months to the day."

The Doctor's face softened. "I'm sorry." Katie smiled, reaching across the table to grab his hand.

"S'all right. Tosh did a brilliant job with the homing device. It would've taken me twice as long, and who knows what I would have done by then. Besides, I'll be that much happier when we get flying again."

"We could leave now."

Katie shook her head lightly, her smiling dimming just a touch. "We both know we can't, not until this problem is solved. We're just too darn curious to let it go," she finished, letting go of his hand and standing up straight. Her eyes were bright, but their half lidded state told the Doctor she wasn't as happy as they seemed to say.

"I think it's more than that," the Doctor said, his eyes open yet slightly prodding. "Something's got you running."

"Don't go down that road with me, Time Lord," Katie said, her voice taking on a bitter note. "It's a place you don't want to walk."

"Except," the Doctor continued as though he hadn't heard her, "What I can't quite see is what could have you so scared while you're still so young."

"Old enough."

"For what?"

Katie hesitated. "For causing problems." She tapped the microscope lightly. "You get back to staring at thumb bits. I have to refill my pump." She stared to turn away, then turned back.

"How long has it been on your end?"

"About a week."

"Have you fed my plants during that time?"

"Kathryn, your plants are some of the most terrifying things I've come across, and I refuse to feed them."  
>Katie gave him a look of horror. "You haven't fed them!"<p>

Turning, Katie dashed up the stairs. The Doctor called out after her.

"They aren't going to die after one week!"

"No, but they'll be hungry!" Katie's voice floated back. "And the last thing we need is one of them crawling out of TARDIS and eating someone!"

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

Katie came back down to the basement room several hours later. Not that it had really taken her that long to feed her half-dozen carnivorous plants, but she had had to use the time to gather herself. She was so confused. This topic was such a sensitive one. Sure, the newspapers had painted her a hero, a brave thirteen year old who had done her part for society and only through personal inexperience on her part had such a tragedy occurred at the end.

She knew better. Oh, how false public opinion was! Facades and double lives could be lived so very well that even those closest to it could start to believe. That's why she had taken the name Kavrin. She couldn't let herself forget, not this. Bradley had been her best friend, before she betrayed him. When he had no voice left to defend himself and protect his own character and reputation, she-

No. Not now. She couldn't think this now. Whatever this new creature hunting her was, Bradley was just a way to draw her out, the Doctor the comfort to run to afterwards. That was all.

She found Owen with the Doctor in the basement. Owen was going over whatever they had found about the thumb. The Doctor was flipping through a series of pictures and newspaper printouts. Katie felt her hearts simultaneously sink and tighten, then flare in anger. How could he do this after she had insisted he leave her human life alone? She had made it perfectly clear before they started traveling that if anything came up she would handle it. Did he suddenly not trust her?

A moment later she fought the emotions down. This was the Doctor, and being thorough was just part of who he was.

"Whatcha looking at?" Katie asked, keeping her voice light. The Doctor glanced up at her, somehow hearing the conflict in her. He gave Owen a slight nod. Owen slipped out past Katie, who braced herself for what she knew the topic would be.

"Tosh brought down printouts of the mural, and results from searches she did on the date, symbols, and initials." He held out a newspaper printout. Katie took it, hardly glancing at it. The headline itself was one of many burned into her memory: LOCAL GIRL BUSTS DRUG MEET. Under it was a black and white photograph of a young girl.

"So?"

"Well, unless I'm wrong, and I hardly ever am, this is the same county you lived in."

"Might have been."

"And the high school mentioned was yours."

"Possibly."

"The name of the boy killed was Bradley Rogers. Ring any bells?"

"There's a chance."

The Doctor could see that Katie was on the defensive. Her jaw was set and her eyes half-closed, things she only did when she was threatened in some way. "Kathryn, does any of this have to do with what happened today?"

Katie shrugged. "Tosh is good at her job. If that's what she found, then I guess it does." She started to turn away.

"Gina."

Katie froze, her back ridged. The Doctor's gentle voice grated on her nerves. "Ah, then it was you."

"Don't ever call me by that name. Ever." She half turned back towards him. "Gina Alexis was left behind two years ago, and she isn't coming back."

"What happened?"

"You read the articles," Katie said, finishing turning back towards him. "What did they say?"

The Doctor paused before answering. "That you stopped a drug racket and possible bloodbath by showing up to a gang meeting, and in self-defense you shot and killed a boy."

"Then I guess that's what happened, isn't it? Because we know that newspapers never lie."

The sarcastic note in Katie's voice made the Doctor puzzled, but he continued. "Was there more?"

"No, that's actually a rather neat summary. I went to the meeting, tried to protect myself and killed a boy, and in the end the drug seller stopped selling. So, happy ending all around, over and done with."

"Was he your first?"

"My first kill?" Katie said, almost carelessly. "Yah. For missing the person I was really aiming for, it was a good shot. Well, two shots. One in the heart, the other right through the head. Bam."

The Doctor stared at Katie, unsure whether to be appalled at the callous comments or try and understand why she didn't seem to care. He wanted to press the subject, but knew that he would get nothing more from her now.

"Your attacker," he said, changing the subject. "This the first time you've seen him?"

"In a way," Katie replied, obviously relaxing. "He was never a physical form before. I'm pretty sure I've heard him before though. Usually when the energy was giving me a headache and I was reminiscing about…stuff." The way Katie blushed and glanced away made the Doctor raise an eyebrow.

"What sort of 'stuff'?"

"…Okay fine, when I was thinking about you," Katie shot back. "Oh, wipe that smirk off your face. I was bored, and it's kind of hard to think about space travel without you coming into the memory."

The Doctor kept smiling at her. Katie rolled her eyes. "Anyway, he was mostly a voice. Kept calling me Kavrin. Not sure how he got the name."

"When did it start?"

"Soon after I came through the…" Katie wrinkled her forehead. "No, while I was in the Rift. I remember floating through it—not an event I wish to repeat—and I felt something. I remember that it was obsessed with thoughts."

"Thoughts?"

"Yeah, like, um, memories. I was thinking about…"

The Doctor kept starting at her. "About…" he prodded.

Katie flushed for a second time. "You. Oh don't look so smug, I was only wondering where you were. Except for some reason I didn't think of you as 'Doctor,' but rather as Second Friend. That made me wonder why you were Second instead of First." Katie gave a gasp as though just realizing something. "That's what he meant. Oh, I am so thick sometimes!"

"You're only human."

Katie gave the Doctor a serious look and shook her head. "I'm not human. We've been over this."

"You were raised as one."

"Raised, only raised. What I mean is that Thought Man called himself my 'FirstSecond Friend,' so he probably read my mind or something. Maybe the creep feeds on brain waves, and I happened along at the wrong time."

"But why come back for you?" the Doctor mused. "Must be thousands of people in Cardiff, all of them easier targets. Why you?"

Katie shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I tasted better. It could be a conquest thing, no one gets away and all that."

The Doctor thought about this for a moment. "Kathryn," he asked, speaking slowly, "Just how bright was your friend Bradley?"

Rather than snapping at the Doctor or falling silent, Katie smiled lightly, almost fondly. "Good ol' Bradley Rogers. I used to call him Buck Rogers, after the T.V. show. The guy was smart, but not really what you might call brilliant. Big on defending others, more likely to leap rather than look. Took me completely off guard when I found out that he'd been making—killer drugs."

"How's your head?" the Doctor asked abruptly, ignoring her slip. Katie looked at him quizzically.

"Pardon?"

"Well, I just thought you might still be having problems with my memories."

It took Katie a few moments to figure out what the Doctor meant. "Oh, you mean from when you had to get the voices out after the Weeping Angels shattered. Gave me some problems at first, but they've settled down now." Katie gave the Doctor a look, recognizing the expression on his face. "What are you getting at?"

"I think your attacker is having an identity crisis."

Katie gave a derisive snort. "Tell me about it."

"No, I'm serious. My memories, and the emotions that went with them, would have been fresh in your mind. If he feeds off of thoughts, those thoughts would become part of him. Add onto that your memories of me and of your friend, and it's one confusing mess. It's no wonder he wanted to get a hold of you again. He needs the rest of your mind to sort out who he is."

"Comforting," Katie said dryly. "Why not just make copies of the memories though? I saw the look on his face…faces…whatever. His intent was obviously to make me dead. Don't quite know how he'd manage that though."

"You aren't exactly immortal," the Doctor said. Katie shrugged.

"I've died twice, not like a third round would do much damage."

"You've died?" the Doctor asked in shock. "What have you been doing while I've been gone?"

Katie realized her blunder and tried to explain. "The first time was back at Boron with the Angels, right after the cave in. I was buried under the rocks and Aiden pulled me out."

The Doctor was slightly disturbed by the way she almost skipped over the name. She was too much like him.

"The second time was when Gwen and Owen were shooting me when I was trying to kill Jack." Katie made a face, and the Doctor knew that must have been when she kissed him. He still found it funny that someone other than he was able to withstand Jack's charms.

"How did you come back then?" the Doctor asked. Katie smiled mischievously at him.

"Give you one guess," she said as she rubbed her hands together. Small waves rolled over her skin like liquid lightening.

"That's new."

"The Rift does odd stuff, but it also gives me more energy to play with. It's also helpful if you don't want to be dead. I sucked a bunch of energy out of the air a few seconds after death, and it worked like a jumper cable on a car. My flesh gets reconstructed, my bones reset, and I start breathing again." She wrinkled her nose. "On a side note, it tickles a little when a bullet works its way out of your body."

The Doctor peered at Katie, making her feel like a bug on a card again. "Will you stop that?" she snapped at him, irritated.

"I think I know why Thought needs you dead."

"Shoot."

"When anything dies, it releases all of its energy. Well, heat tends to stick around for a while, but for the most part it just leaves, including brain waves. If you're dead, all your mental energy, all your memories, are available for the taking. Of course, that would explain why you're still when you…come back," the Doctor finished, glancing uncomfortably at Katie. She smiled lightly.

"And you wouldn't have me any other way." Katie rubbed the bridge of her nose. "While all this is fascinating, I've been living on a human schedule for four months, and it's bedtime. I'm turning in."

The Doctor smiled. For all of Katie's insistences that she wasn't human, she certainly had no problems acting like one. "Sleep well then."

Katie paused on her way up the stairs. "Quick question though; find anything interesting about the thumb?"

"Nothing really, except that the entire thing is riddled with synapses."

"Like a brain?" Katie raised her eyebrows. "That's certainly peculiar. Pretty cool though."

* * *

><p>Katie lay on her bed in her room on TARDIS, blissfully happy. TARDIS always had her own signature sounds, even when landed, sounds that meant home and safety. This room was home, with the weapons on the wall, the glass cupboards full of mementos, pictures of her un-reachable family on the dresser, a fireplace, myrrh in the incense dish…oh, it was so good to have home back.<p>

Katie fell into a deep sleep. She didn't know how long she had been out when a voice broke through her dreams.

"Hello Gina. I told you I'd come back."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, priase happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

Katie tumbled out of bed, scrambling up from the floor as she untangled her legs from the sheets. She swallowed hard, her face pale as she stared at Bradley. She knew deep down that it was Thought Man, but with the holes in his body it looked so much like her dear friend, right down to the blue eyes and shaggy tow colored hair.

"Rather clumsy, especially for you. Are you feeling all right?" The nearly genuine concern in his voice felt like a brand on Katie's heart.

"How did you get in here?" Katie hissed.

"I'm in your thoughts, Gina," Thought-Bradley said as though it were obvious. "I'll go where ever you go, only a synapse away."

"Get out of that body," Katie said, snarling. "You don't deserve to use that form."

"Did you deserve to destroy it?" Thought-Bradley asked, his tone cordial.

Katie swallowed hard, her jaw setting. "I don't give a damn what you say, you bastard; just get out of his body."

Thought-Bradley's eyebrows went up in mild shock. "You've been talking to Owen too much. You never used to swear like that. What's happened to you?"

"You're the one in my head, you son-of-a-bitch, so you can bloody well figure it out yourself," Katie said, forcing herself to ignore the hurt look on the man's face. In an effort to seem controlled, she added, "Besides, you're getting blood on the carpet."

Thought-Bradley smiled again, seeing through Katie's façade. Wordlessly, his shape stretched to that of the Doctor. Katie loosened a little, though she was still tense. "At least this one I argue with all the time. Now why are you here?"

"Oh, just wanted to chat, really. See how you were. Hard day for you."

The voice was so accurate that Katie almost believed it was the Doctor. "You as well. How's your hand?"

Thought-Doctor held it up. The thumb had grown back. "Oh, it's fine. This one works better, actually. Must be because it was formed when I had more to run on. Power direct from the source, as one might put it."

"Glad to know I can heal as well as destroy," Katie said. Gesturing to a pair of armchairs in front of her fireplace she asked, "You want anything? Coffee, tea, soda. I'm sure I have fruit juice someplace."

"Maybe something from your secret cabinet." Thought-Doctor smiled at Katie's surprised expression. "Your Doctor may not know about it, but I've seen your mind, Kathryn. Although, the fact you really do only keep it for medical purposes is admirable."

Katie smiled, though it was a little strained. "Thank you."

Opening a panel in the back of her wardrobe, Katie produced two glasses and a bottle of Kentucky Straight Bourbon. Wordlessly, she set the glasses down on a small table between the armchairs and poured the liquor before sitting down herself.

"Very Victorian, don't you think?" she asked, taking a sip. "Two people who hate each other with a passion conversing politely in front of a fire drinking like two old friends. Makes me wonder if I haven't been reading too much in my spare time and now it's leaking over into your psyche."

"Why would you think I hate you?"

"You used the blood of an innocent family to paint the worst event of my life on a wall where anyone could see it," Katie said, watching the golden liquid in her glass play with the firelight. "By now, all of TORCHWOOD has read the newspapers."

"Don't be so upset about it. It isn't as though they know the truth. You can still hide."

Katie's neck tensed as she remembered, but she forced herself to continue. "And then you pretended to be the last person I place any trust in in order to kill me." She shrugged, lifting her glass again. "If it isn't hate, it certainly isn't love."

"I love you as one would a favorite food," Thought-Doctor said, looking for all the world as though he were simply arranging a business agreement. "I've tasted a lot of people in my years living in the Rift. A perfect place to live, what with all those minds leeching through. I just have to sit and collect. However, most of the flavors I get are rather common, simple things like shopping, or childcare, or mortgages, or weddings."

Katie could picture Rex Harrison, a stage and screen actor from the 1900's, sitting across from her. For a split second, Thought-Doctor almost sounded like him. He continued, and Katie brushed the thought aside.

"You are something new, Kathryn, a delicacy if you would. The fact that you fight back only adds to the excitement, and your Doctor's memories only add to the flavor. I haven't left the Rift in, oh, at least a hundred years. To make me follow you out, well, that's quite an accomplishment." Thought-Doctor raised his glass to her in a silent toast.

Katie settled back into her chair. Her mind briefly wandered to her mental picture of Sherlock Holmes nemesis, James Moriarty. For a moment, she could have sworn the man sitting across from her looked just like it. She blinked and the Doctor's form returned.

"So if I'm such a marvelous feast," Katie asked, "why aren't you trying to partake of me now? It's not like I can call for reinforcements. As you probably know, I soundproofed these walls a long time back."

Thought smiled at Katie's memory. "Yes, when your Doctor complained that the music you were listening to was too loud. Pat Benatar, wasn't it?"

"Gotta love someone like her," Katie said with a wink. "Got a great voice, and some awesome songs." She moved to take another sip, then lowered the glass. "Look here, if you know something as menial as that, then why are you still bothering me? You've obviously gotten very deep, and for something like you one meal will probably linger for months. Why not just live and let live?"

"And let you get away? Certainly not. The depression of knowing you escaped would cancel out any taste. Besides, I want to see how long you can last before I catch up with you."

Noting the empty glass in Thought's hand, Katie leaned over to refill it. "You've caught up with me now. Why am I still alive?"

Thought gestured around the room. "TARDIS is a strong woman. While she isn't good enough to block me out completely, she is able to prevent me from becoming flesh enough to take you. Otherwise you would be eaten already."

"That, and you have to have me dead before you can get the last of it."

"Yes, there is that. How did you know?"

Katie smiled thinly, a hint of pride coloring her features. "I die, and my mind literally lets go of me. If you're on the scene, then you can finish licking the plate, as it were."

"Almost," Thought said as he pointed at her. "What you don't know about your own mind is all of the things locked away in the back. Oh, such knowledge! So many stories, new things to learn, programs to decode. Those Rahki masters of yours really knew how to pack it in. It doesn't open up unless your life is threatened or you're nearing death. I had a marvelous preview of what your masters put in the last time I took you. Stop glaring at me like that. It's rude and we both know I'm right."

"The Rahki are not my masters."

"They created you, gave you all their knowledge but only so you could access enough to satisfy immediate need, and then presented you with a gift that's really a curse. They've carefully controlled your life up to now, and no matter how hard you try you can't let go of that transporter. I'd say that they were your masters."

"I couldn't care less about what they did in the past," Katie growled. "It means nothing to me now."

"Doesn't it?"

Rather than answer, Katie drank more of her bourbon. Because she healed instantly, it didn't burn going down, and she knew that drunkenness was out of the question. For a moment, she wished she could get drunk, then decided that the headache afterwards wouldn't be worth it.

"If you're still answering questions," Katie said smoothly, "then I'd like to know why you took such measures to bring me out. Why not just show up in the basement and eat me?"

"Kathryn, you are a girl very much in control of her own mind. When I first followed you through, I had to wait until I had collected enough of your stray memories to try and kill you. Unfortunately, I'm not very used to guns, so I hit the dear Captain instead. Since you weren't dead and I'd just interrupted your train of memories, I nearly dissipated. Fortunately with Cardiff situated on top of a rift I managed to scrape by."

"And after that it was a matter of waiting until I had thought enough about both subjects to give yourself a shape," Katie said. "Still doesn't say why you didn't simply eat me once you had gathered enough power."

"For the fun of it!" Thought said gleefully. "I've been exercising the knowledge and memories your Doctor left behind to fiddle about with the networks here because I wanted to know how and if you would respond. I had to give up on the toy robots marching through the streets; you were a bit busy then. But the quick way you dealt with the attacking appliances was refreshing to see, though the fact that you didn't take care of my little firecracker yourself was disappointing."

"Thank you for making me feel like a lab rat," Katie said dryly. "Does it add to the taste or something?"

"It does, actually."

"First a lab rat, and now I'm being marinated. Lovely."

Thought furrowed his brow. It was nearly killing Katie to hear all these things come from the Doctor's lips, even though she knew the truth of the matter. It felt almost like a betrayal. That was probably his goal.

"That's the only reason for the scare tactics," Thought said. "I'm truly sorry for the mess in that apartment, but it is so much fun to send prey through emotional roller coasters before finishing them."

Katie stared at Thought in disbelief. "The mess in that apartment? You murdered four people in horrific ways, when all you needed to do was send a quick message through cyberspace!"

"Wouldn't have been nearly as interesting. After all, hunting is a blood sport."

Katie stood abruptly, slamming her glass down hard enough that it shattered, sending glass shards flying. Thought simply smiled.

"You don't have to say it. You would kill me right now if you could, except you don't know how. All your life, you've been fighting people on your terms, with your rules. Now you have to learn someone else's, and you can't even fall back on your newfound abilities, seeing as we would simply be locked in a never ending circuit of energy now that you've taken off that silly pump." Thought stood slowly. He put his hands in his trouser pockets and leaned backwards as Katie had seen the Doctor do countless times.

"It terrifies you, doesn't it?" Thought asked, his voice low. "This whole conversation, you've been looking for a way to fight me, but you have nothing except the answers I choose to give you. You've been doing your best to prove that none of this has rattled you in the slightest, but I know better. I've effectively placed you under house arrest. Step outside TARDIS and you are consumed."

"You don't know me very well then. I don't put a lot of value on my life."

"And the Doctor's life?"

"You leave him out of this," Katie hissed, taking an involuntary step closer. "This is between you and me."

"I wonder how he would feel if he knew that you had caused his death. I'm certain that the final betrayal would add to his tastes."

Katie was shaking with restrained rage. Thought grinned, the usually marvelous smile malevolent. "Once you're gone, I'm sure he would be a marvelous dessert, with all those memories and ideas, and the final loss of a friend. I could live off him alone for years to come. Of course, maybe I can just start with him, and let you feel the pain of killing another one."

Katie leapt forward, tackling Thought to the ground. She wrapped her hands around his throat, ignoring the face accompanying those cutting eyes.

Thought's face rippled, though the expression in his eyes stayed the same. Bradley stared up at Katie and she instantly released him, gasping. Her head reeled with random memories and ideas, one having nothing to do with the next. She could feel Thought shaking her mind like a snow globe, but couldn't do anything to stop it. Katie froze, dazed and terrified.

Thought brought up an arm, smacking her aside. Her head shattered the glass case she had before it was pulled back by her hair. She didn't even try to struggle as he crouched next to her.

"He never said it, did he?" Thought mocked in her friend's voice as he wrapped one hand around her exposed neck, applying just enough pressure to make breathing difficult. His cruel eyes continued to drill into hers as drops of blood from the bullet wound fell onto her face. Katie felt like a dear staring into a lion's face seconds before being eaten as Thought continued. "You screamed loud enough to be heard through time itself, but he never said those words."

Thought leaned in towards her face until there were mere millimeters of air between them. "Did you ever think I would?" Bradley asked in a whisper.

Tears of pure fear leaked from Katie's eyes. Latching onto a picture in the spinning maelstrom of her mind, she held it firmly, struggling to keep from drowning.

Thought smiled again, hearing the image. Katie could see herself slipping as the memory changed and was realized.

The Doctor gazed at her, expression unreadable except for the intense rage. "You are mine, Kathryn. You can't run, you can't hide. I will hunt you down for what you are. I will always come for you."

She closed her eyes, trying to shut out the world. Her mind was shutting down, and she was going with it. The Doctor leaned impossibly closer.

"Mine." Shifting the hand on her throat a little further up her neck to get a better grip, he laid his mouth on hers in a hungry, dominating kiss.

Katie sat up with a gasping cough. It was several agonizing seconds before the thoughts settled and the pressure in her chest eased. She looked around frantically, expecting to see Thought standing over her. A shadow moved and made her scrabble backwards and hit her head against the wall. She sighed with relief when she realized it was simply her dying fire.

"A dream. I was dreaming. Just dreaming. That's all. A horrid, horrid dream." Katie swallowed hard, the action reminding her that the hand she could still feel was no longer there. She drew her knees up to her chest as she pursed her lips together, wanting to wipe at them, but finding herself too scared to.

Throwing back the covers, she stumbled out of her bed. Her clock, automatically set to local time, told her she had been sleeping for three hours. Nearly falling over herself getting to it, she lit one of the many scented oil lamps she had, desperate for some light. The sight of the flame instantly calmed her. She let out a relieved sigh.

"There now. Much better. I'm just stressed, that's all. Anyone would be after the kind of day I had. My mind is playing games with me."

Katie turned back towards her bed. "I'll read for a bit, then go back to sleep. Something light and happy. Poetry maybe. Perhaps—"

Katie's personal musings were cut short. Involuntarily, she dropped her lantern, barely noticing as the carpet caught fire. The invisible hand around her throat tightened, and the voice claiming her started whispering in her ear.

There was a large purple blood stain on the floor.

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

_Tap tap tap._

"Kathryn?"

The Doctor frowned and knocked on Katie's bedroom door again. She had been in there for sixteen hours of local time, four times as long as she usually slept. It worried him, as did the newest pictures he had. After TORCHWOOD had returned from the scene of the new destruction with the pictures, the Doctor had made the decision to let Katie know. He knew her best, and was most likely to be able to talk to her, though what direction the conversation would take even he couldn't guess.

"Kathryn, it's me. Open the door." When there was no answer, he tried turning the knob. It was locked.

"Kathryn, unlock the door." Still no reply. Sighing at the strange nature of earth females, he soniced the lock. Turning the handle, he pushed the door in. It moved a centimeter at most before it stopped again, bumping against something.

"Kathryn, I don't know what you're doing, but you need to open the door. I have to talk to you, and it's very difficult when I can't see you."

Frustrated at the lack of response, the Doctor leaned into the door. After a few seconds, it started to budge, but not nearly enough. He sighed again.

"Sorry I have to do this, but if you insist on acting your age…" Producing his sonic again, he used it on the door hinges. They loosened and he took the door completely off the wall and set it gently aside.

Crawling over the dresser that had been moved in front of the door, the Doctor stared aghast at the destruction in Katie's room. The carpet was burnt, the walls were scorched, mirrors cracked, and the smell of oil and spices hung in the air. Water damage from the fire protection system was everywhere.

"Kathryn?" the Doctor called, worry tingeing his voice as he started to look for a body. His sharp eyes scanned the room, looking for clues as to its destruction. A semi-empty bottle of alcohol sat on a table by the scattered pieces of a dead fire. With the bottle was a glass intact and full to overflowing and next to that was nothing but a pile of glass shards. The glass case where she kept the mementoes of their trips was smashed in as though someone had crashed into it. A painting of their first trip was singed at the bottom but higher on the wall than usual, as though someone had moved it out of the way. The two pictures of Katie's human life were missing. A broken pottery lamp on the floor told of how the fire began. The Doctor frowned and crouched down. Amid the charred remains of the Persian rug was an oddly colored stain. He scanned it swiftly. Blood. Katie's blood.

"Kathryn!" he called again, his voice rising in pitch. His searching turned frantic, and then he caught the way Katie's greenhouse entrance bulged, just a hint. Unlocking that door with his sonic as well, it burst open, leaves and branches springing into view. It looked like Katie had given all the plants something to make them grow three times as fast. Fortunately, he knew that only a few of them were carnivorous. Still, now he had no way to see them ahead of time.

He stepped inside, the oppressive heat and humidity swallowing him instantly.

"Kathryn, I know you're in here," the Doctor said, the greenery eating his words. He tried to keep most of the worry from his voice. Katie had to be truly good and terrified to have retreated this far into her rooms. Something had spooked her again, but what could it be this time? Nothing could get into TARDIS without a key or an immense amount of power, both of which he would have noticed.

He pushed in deeper. The plants were so big he couldn't tell where the growing racks were, or the separate isles, resulting in both shins being bruised very quickly.

"Kathryn—"

"Get out."

The harsh yet pleading note in his friend's tone made him stop, though not for long. He pressed forward in the direction of her voice.

"Kathryn, what happened? Your room—"

"Was locked and barricaded for a reason. Leave now."

"I'm not leaving you."

"If I sick Floyd on you, will you go?"

The slight note of sarcasm made the Doctor feel just a dot better "Your plants don't like high-pitched sounds, and I've got my sonic."

"If I ask very nicely will you go?"

Something was making her feel better. "Probably not."

"If I beg you from my knees, will you go?"

"Kathryn, what happened?"

"Please leave," she said again, her voice farther away. The Doctor pressed forward, following the sound.

"I'm not leaving until you talk to me."

"Just get out!" she screeched at him from the right. "Don't make me put you in the open. Don't make me do that again."

"Why would I be in the open?"

"He's obsessed with it," Katie said, her voice quickening. "He's very, very good at what he does. He'll never back down from the goal, and here he can't get me. You never have to worry about it."

"Who?"

"Everyone. Someone. No one. He's up here."

The Doctor spun around, feeling someone tap the back of his head. Vainly he tried to see through the foliage.

"Do you mean—"

"Shh! You want to bring him back?"

The Doctor paused, thinking. "Was he inside the TARDIS?"

"He was in my head. He's still there. But he can't finish me if he's just there. You can have all the battle plans of an opposing force, but if you can't reach the hiding place it doesn't make a difference. And if you can almost reach them, but not quite, you won't go anywhere else. So here I stay, and there you go."

"Go where?"

The voice coming from the plants was now tinged with sadness. "Out. Away. Into space, across the planets, running as you always have."

"And you?" the Doctor asked, somehow knowing the answer.

"I'll stay in here."

"Kathryn, step out where I can see you."

"Doctor—"

` "Kathryn."

Katie stepped out of the greenery. She looked like she had been through hell and then some, and then tried unsuccessfully to tidy up. Her clothes, which looked more like pajamas, were torn. Her hair was up in a messy bun, like it had been done without brushing first and her face, while clean, seemed to have been washed in a hurry. But none of that mattered when the Doctor saw the look in her eyes.

"Oh, Kathryn," he said, the words almost a groan. He stepped up to her and pulled her into a hug, some dormant remnant of his days as a father coming to the surface. She didn't return the hug, but simply folded into herself, trying to hide from everything. More than anything right then, he wanted to protect her. "Oh Kathryn," he repeated, the words softer this time. "What did he do to you?"

"Nothing," she whispered. "Everything." She pressed herself closer to him, seeking refuge. "It's one thing to fight yourself Doctor. If that's all he was, I would be out there now, because I know how to fight me. I do it all the time. But what do you do against someone who has everything that makes you you in his head, yet is entirely different?" She shook her head slightly. "I'm not going to let him take you. I can't kill another one."

"What do I have to do with this?"

"Nothing. Everything." She took a deep breath. "He was here Doctor. He was inside TARDIS, in my room. What he said…" She shook her head again. "He's completely evil. It's all control with him, and he does it very well."

"Then why give him the control?"

"Because it keeps you alive if I do it. If that means living locked inside TARDIS for the rest of my life, then I'll do it. I can't kill another one."

Briefly, the Doctor wondered why she kept repeating that. "What, I'll just come visit you once a year?" he said acerbically.

"Well, maybe twice if you can find the time," Katie said, the lightness of the statement forced. "I could be the crazy lady living in the basement. Everybody needs one of those."

A mental picture of Katie losing all hold on her sanity, becoming a shattered image of the girl her knew made the Doctor's hearts stop for an instant.

"Kathryn, if he's from the Rift, we'll just leave," the Doctor said, pushing her back slightly so that he could look her in the face. "Leaving is always an option."

Katie shook her head hard. "No, no not this time. The Rift reaches everywhere. I've just spent four very long months shelving things from every time and every place that's out there. Cardiff is just an outlet for this stuff. And I know that he'd be listening for me, and he would follow me until finally he would catch me, and then you would be next, and I'm not letting it happen to another one. I just…I just can't."

The Doctor let go of Katie. She was shaking lightly and biting her bottom lip. "You're serious, aren't you?" he said, quietly at first, his voice getting louder as he went on. "You'd just lock yourself away, throw out your life because of some _thing_ throwing threats at you? Just because it's a new creature trying to harm you like countless others have?"

"No!" Katie snapped at him, her voice low and raspy. "No, I'm locking myself away because he threatened you like so many others have, and this one I know can do it. As soon as I am no longer the one that got away, he'll move on to you for the next course. And I am not," she said, punctuating her statement by poking him lightly in the chest, "letting it happen again. I will not see another friend die because I was taking stupid chances."

She took a deep, shuddering breath. "So I ask you, I beg you, walk out now. Say your goodbyes to Jack, and leave Cardiff and the Rift behind. TARDIS can shuffle my rooms into the back. You just continue on as you always have. Find another friend, someone gorgeous and brilliant and funny and brave and show her the stars. Let me fade." She glanced down and then back up again, tears starting to trickle down her face. "Please. Just let me vanish."

The Doctor stared at her, for once with honestly no idea of how to respond. He'd had people die for him before, sacrifices he could almost handle. He'd had people walk out and live for him before, something he could always handle. He'd never had someone willing to only exist for him.

The image of the future strengthened. He could see himself standing next to an as yet nameless figure who had wandered deep into TARDIS, explaining that Katie had once been a living, loving, strong-willed, magnificent creature, only to let every chance of life slip from her fingers because of him.

"Would you really make me do that?" the Doctor asked, his voice cold. "Kathryn, I—"

"Please Doctor," she begged, tears running faster now. "Please, don't make me take another one down."

"You keep saying that. What do you mean? Bradley? Kathryn that was a mistake caused by fear. You tried to stop him from selling, went so far as to trade out his opium for something non-addictive. You can't blame yourself—"

"Yes I can!" she cried, now sobbing. "I can because it was me! The whole story in those stupid papers was nothing but lies. Bradley wasn't dealing drugs; I was!"

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><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

The Doctor stood frozen, completely thrown. "What?"

Katie turned her head to the side, unable to look at the Doctor's face. "The official story, the one the whole county swallowed, is that Bradley Isaac Rogers was part of an illegal drug operation, selling it to three local gangs. The story the local newspapers carried is that I, his neighbor and childhood friend, found out about it and tried to stop it by trading out the opium with a non-addictive substance made of the same materials. Most people would call it kavrin. The story his parents have to remember him by is that I found out the gangs were angry at him and that I followed him to a drug meet so that he wouldn't get hurt, and in the ensuing commotion I shot him instead of the person attacking me. That was the story."

Katie swallowed hard and forced herself to look at the Doctor. He could see the pain of the festering wound on her soul written on her face, the source of the weight he had always wondered about becoming clear. "That was the story I, the girl everyone thought was the perfect child with the perfect grades and the perfect house and the perfect life, sold to the police. That was the story the evidence supported. But it wasn't the truth. The truth is that I was making the drugs, and Bradley found out. He tried to stop me, but I told him to get out and let it alone." Katie laughed dryly. "I was so shocked when I realized what he'd done. I didn't think he knew enough to do something like that. But he did."

"And when they found out that it wasn't the right stuff, they demanded you come through."

Katie nodded. "Yeah. I was infuriated at Bradley. I was so angry that he had messed things up for me. I packed all the opium I had and took it with me, as well as an unregistered gun. Don't know why I took it. I had gotten lazy in training and my shooting skills weren't very good. Then he showed up while I was trying to explain, and they just went nuts. I must have made it obvious that Bradley was the one who had swapped things out and…and…" Katie stopped, unable to continue.

"What happened then?" the Doctor asked, his tone devoid of emotion. Katie rubbed her arms, shaking her head.

"After the fact, the cops showed up. I was so scared. All I could think of was that Bradley was dead and about what would happen to me. I told them the whole story, but with reversed roles. They gathered all the evidence and it matched. I was so very careful whenever I handled the poppies, even wiping my equipment down afterwards. Bradley was less cautious when he made the kavrin, and the stuff was all over his clothes, his fingerprints all over the trays and things. The only one who ever really suspected it was Margret Healy, the janitor at the school. She never said anything to me, but I was certain that she knew."

"You said, 'after the fact.' Does that mean after you shot him?"

Katie nodded. When she spoke, her words were a husky whisper. "Yeah. The worst moment of my life, and then I destroyed his name when he had no way to defend himself." She looked down again, completely vulnerable. "He was my best friend. He was the one person I really trusted, and I killed him and left his family with a spoiled picture of who he was. I was a coward and a betrayer in the worst possible sense. It was my fault, from beginning to end, my stupid brainless choices that did it."

"Why use the name 'Kavrin?' I should think you'd want to forget it."

Katie's eyes looked at him sharply. More anger showed through than before. "Forget it? Just like that? No Doctor. I made certain everyone called me that because I wanted to always remember what a deceitful, lying, disgusting snake I was. I never want to forget because if I do for a single second, I may kill someone else and I will not let that happen." Her voice quieted, drifting back over memories. She was speaking more to herself than to the Doctor now.

"Afterwards, there was so much going on. Everyone knew I was a target, and no one wanted to be near the target. Blood-bought fame died, and I became the girl with a gun in her locker. Not that a lot of people knew about it, but Margaret knew that I needed it. But I can't forget it. I won't let myself, because if I do, I'll destroy everything I value. And right now, that's pretty much just you."

The Doctor drew in a breath, rubbing his face. This was all so much to take in. He couldn't begin to make sense of what he thought about it. By the date on the papers, Katie would have just barely been thirteen. Drug dealing that early on. Why had she done it? Money? Was she looking for status? Protection from people at school? Rebellion against something else?

Did it really matter?

"The thing from the Rift…he's been replaying this, hasn't he?"

Katie nodded. "Yeah. Reminding me of it, letting me know what I could do now, how much I put others at risk just by existing. He's in my head, but he's playing it like an expert pianist."

"Has he been showing up as Bradley?"

Katie bit her lip and nodded again. "Yeah. With both bullet holes as clear as if I had just shot him. That's where the blood came from earlier. It was his." Katie glanced to the side, her face stiffening as she idly picked dead leaves off a plant. "Not that I'm not always covered in it. Even more so now that I've started traveling," she added, almost as an afterthought. She closed her eyes, crushing the dead leaves in her fist. "Two shots. I was aiming for the guy next to him, and I missed. A full moon at close range and I missed!"

The Doctor wanted to say something, but had no idea what he would say. Anything would simply aggravate the wound. He could say that from experience. Even at nine-hundred three, he could remember the first time someone had died because of him. It still replayed in his mind, as Bradley's death was obviously doing in Katie's mind.

"I tried to help him. I saw what I had done, and I tried to help him. But he was gone. Died just like that. Vacant blue eyes staring up at a clear night sky, shaggy hair looking silver, clear skin pale as anything. I begged him to answer me, to forgive me, but it was far too late. There were no words for what I felt, so I screamed, long and loud. That scream is probably still echoing through the vortex. It didn't work though. He didn't come back, and he never spoke."

Katie looked into the Doctor's eyes, the flakes of dead leaf falling from her hand. The emptiness that was there sent a chill down the Doctor's spine. "That's the kind of person I am, Doctor. Please, don't make me do that to yet another man I—trust. The only person I trust."

"Is this all he was holding over you?"

"Thought's not holding anything over me," Katie said, irritated. "Pain tastes better than joy to him, and that's my most painful memory. It's a taunt, a confusing chant that moves with the hundreds of other images in my head. I never know what's going to happen next, when he'll show. The plants at least help me to hide. They're something living I can connect with." Her face took on a determined look. "That's what he would do to you Doctor, and I can't let that happen. I can't let him hurt you like that."

"What makes me so special?"

Katie smiled lightly, pain tinged with happiness. "Because you took me in and showed me the stars. You let me believe I could do more than destroy, that I could stop being Kavrin and become someone else." She shook her head again, this time with more of her characteristic stubbornness coming through.

"I can't let you go through that just because of me. If it requires living under the control of that…that thing, then I'll do it. If it means that he can toy with my mind until I don't know which way is up, until I forget my real name, he can go ahead and do that too. As long as he stays away from you."

The Doctor sighed. He couldn't very well drag Katie out of her rooms. She wouldn't lie, so he knew that Thought would take her the second she stepped from TARDIS. But she couldn't stay here, always waiting for the next round with Thought. She had to step out and fight this. The Doctor couldn't do it for her, not this time.

"Well, I guess that's it then," the Doctor said, his voice light. "If there's one thing I've learned about you, it's that when you set your mind on something you won't let it go." He looked around in a curious fashion. "Would you mind showing me the door? Can't see anything in here."

"Straight ahead until you come to the shnozz flowers, hang a left, then another left at the hydrangeas, then straight again."

"Thanks," he said, brushing past her. He paused before completely disappearing into the bushes.

"Oh, nearly forgot to give you this," he said, producing a manila envelope. Katie took it from him as he continued. "A few snapshots I thought you should see. Things to remember Cardiff by." He continued into the foliage, leaving Katie behind.

Katie watched him go. She knew her decision had to hurt him, but it was for the best. She opened the envelope, and gasped at the top picture. Where a building had once been, there was nothing. Completely turned to rubble. The next several pictures were the same. A few showed the bodies. The final picture was of the one section of wall that had remained standing, like it had been protected by something. On it, written again in the coded language Katie had invented, was a message.

_Innocents or the Doctor? Your choice G.A._

* * *

><p>The view screen in TARDIS's console room flickered, allowing anyone watching to see the conversation in the main Hub. Jack and the Doctor were sitting on one of the multiple balconies, watching the blue box. The two of them were discussing something, probably her. They might be trying to think of a way to remove Thought if she did nothing, Jack leaning towards more physical methods, the Doctor trying to come up with a non-violent way to take care of it. The two old men of the universe, both with such stories to share, both unable to say anything.<p>

Katie rubbed the console fondly, smiling in hopes it would hold back the tears. If things worked out the way she figured—no, the way she hoped they would, she wouldn't be coming back.

"You watch over him, lady love," she said, her voice not quite steady. "Find him someone marvelous, and keep him out of too much trouble. We don't want him regenerating any time soon. His current one has a good face." She wiped away the one tear that had managed to escape. "Take care of yourself sweetheart."

Twisting a dial and pulling one last lever, she listened to the beautiful sound TARDIS began to make. Faintly, she heard the Doctor's calling to her, her name sounding so clean in his voice. The tears finally fell as Katie let herself cry for the last time.

* * *

><p>"Kathryn!"<p>

"It's too late; she's gone."

The Doctor didn't look at Jack. "But where? And why in the TARDIS?"

A wind sprung up, accompanied by the sound of the TARDIS engines. Jack and the Doctor backed up as TARDIS reappeared. The Doctor had his key out and the door unlocked in moments as he dashed inside.

"Kathryn!"

"Doctor."

The Doctor turned around at Jack's tone. Jack was pointing at the never used coat rack. The Doctor walked slowly over to it, his mind not wanting to accept what was on it.

Hanging off of it were three things: a light brown messenger bag with faded Gallifreyan writing on it, a shining TARDIS key, and a tear-stained note written in English.

_Please, let me vanish._

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><p>*Constructive crititisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry to break story flow, but this site requires that I do this. I'm giving a spoiler alert for the episode "The End of Time Part II." I'll put another break just before the section the spoiler appears so that those of you who haven't seen the episode yet can skip over it, and another so that you know when it's over. This story cannot be followed without a tiny peice of the spoiler, but it's nothing too drastic. This story can still be followed without reading most of it, but it will help make sense of things in future "American Bred" episodes.**

* * *

><p>Katie stood on the beach, green eyes staring out at the sea, watching the sun's colors play with the thick clouds that nearly hid it. She wore nothing save jeans and a spaghetti strap shirt. Her feet were bare, sinking down into the sand. Her hair was held back only by a white headband, leaving it to blow in the breeze. To anyone walking past, she was just another person. Not that she expected anyone; it was a rather windy night, and it was starting to rain. Any sane person would be at home. Of course, she'd never really been what you might call sane. Sanity was such a lose term. Besides, it was no fun to be sane! Everything was always so boring that way, no excitement at all, just the same routine every day.<p>

She tensed as she felt arms wrap around her shoulders from behind, the move forward and personal, invading, unnerving, restraining. Any other time she would have attacked the perpetrator; this time she held still.

"Thinking about anything important?" the Doctor's voice said. Katie knew it wasn't the Doctor.

"You're the mind reader; you tell me."

Thought laughed quietly. "You know, I never understood the fascination most species hold with the ocean."

"It's a mystery, full of things we'll never be able to know, but we can still somehow relate to them. You can always know just what it's thinking, whether it's angry or not, yet it's completely unpredictable. It keeps going whatever you may do to it, and it's always there, but you never see the same sight twice."

"A constant in a world where nothing is, yet a break from the monotony of everyday life. And you were just complaining that routine was boring."

"And my answer?" Katie said calmly.

Thought held silent for a moment, searching through Katie's mind. "Adventure and travel is brilliant, but to really appreciate it, you have to stop sometime."

"Yep."

Thought shifted his position, setting his head on Katie's shoulder but still holding her. She could feel the energy start to run between them, ignoring the pain and forcing herself to not throw him off her. "You had something you wanted to say to me," Through said, his voice low.

"Can't you read it?"

"I'd rather hear you say it."

Katie swallowed, gathering her courage, wishing she could see Thought's face, even if it was the Doctor's. "I have a business proposal for you. As you know, I constantly absorb energy from all around me. If I die, I bounce right back up again. You can't really kill me, and I would always retain some of my mind, no matter what you may do. You'd never really finish with me. There would always be more, and I would always be the one that got away."

"And the point of this recitation?"

"If you try to leave me and go to the Doctor, nothing will ever compare to the taste again, and the rest of your very long life will be nothing but dull monotony, constantly searching for his equal. If you leave me and go back to your usual life, you will face nothing but mortgages and weddings and pets and childcare. The same gray paste you've simply existed on for at least a hundred years.

"I can survive in the Rift. I can't die. I will always be gaining new memories. You have lived in the Rift for so long that you can probably go wherever you want." Katie turned her head slightly towards Thought, leaning into him. She felt his stubble scratch her cheek.

"Take me into the Rift with you," she whispered. "We can go anywhere, anywhen that you want. You have all my memories. You can make me watch Bradley die a hundred times, see the impact my lies had on everyone close to him. You can show me my happiest moments before bringing me crashing down again with a single image. An emotional roller coaster, a plethora of memories and images that you can feast on for the rest of your life."

Thought straightened and set his chin on top of Katie's head, picturing the life she had described for him. "You would simply give up? Just resign yourself to this fate?"

Katie smiled wryly. "Oh, you know me. I'd probably kick and scream the whole time, or at least for another fifty years. I've got a lot of fight in me. In defeat, defiance, as Winston Churchill put it. Should have gone to see him while I had the chance. Oh well, life is full of regrets."

"And in return for agreeing to become mine?"

"You leave the Doctor alone. Avoid him, or if you happen across his path, never even give him a hint you were there. He is to have no contact with you."

"You would give up everything for him?"

Katie took a breath, picturing the Doctor, her friend, her brother, her father. She could see him standing in front of her, begging her not to do this, telling her that there was always an alternative. Then she saw him with his spirit broken and all the fire out of his eyes, with nothing left but the memories he ran from. She closed her eyes to the image.

"Yes, I would."

Thought's laugh made Katie's skin crawl. "I would accept." He leaned down close to her ear again. "But you've already got masters out there, and they may not want to lose you."

"The Rahki are not my masters. I rule my own life."

"Then why are you still wearing this?" he asked, pulling on the string attached to the transporter pouch. Katie's hand instantly flashed to it, holding it tight. She flushed with anger as Thought laughed again.

"You shed everything of who you were but can't let go of this. Are you sure you're free to sell yourself?"

Katie hesitated. Taking Thought's arms, she moved out of his grasp. She turned to face him, making sure he was watching as she pulled the pouch off and held it out to the side and let go. Katie could feel the desire to snatch it up again building in her, and she almost started hyperventilating. But if this was what it took to convince Thought to take her, to protect the Doctor, then she would do it.

Thought raised his eyebrows before stooping to pick it up from the sand. "I'm impressed." He dropped it into his pocket and dusted off his hands.

"I want to be sure you know just what your life will be beforehand, to know what you're getting into so you won't get any ideas that I have limits. Consider it a gift from the heart."

Katie gasped in shock as she was plunged into the Rift. Empty universes danced before her eyes, screaming silence ringing in her ears.

The swirling energies stopped as Katie tried to regain her breath. Thought stood next to her, still wearing the same face. He nodded to a spot in front of her. Katie's hearts skipped their beats as she looked over and saw him.

"Doctor!" she called involuntarily, jerking forward. She hit her head on something solid. "What the?"

"You insisted he know nothing of me, and this way he doesn't. Take a look."

* * *

><p><strong>Spoiler!<strong>

* * *

><p>Katie looked back to the real Doctor. He was lying among huge glass shards on a fancy tile floor, the room around him obviously owned by someone rich. His brown suit was torn in so many places, his face covered in wounds. Katie sank to her knees, wishing with all her hearts to run to him and help. But she couldn't. Face plastered to the invisible wall, she stared, willing the Doctor to move.<p>

Slowly the Doctor started to move. The look of shock on his face was plain to see. He smiled in disbelief, still on his hands and knees.

"I'm alive," he said, surprised. "I'm still alive!" He started to laugh silently, the joy at surviving whatever it was too great to hold in. Katie felt herself smiling with him.

The Doctor's face froze at a tapping sound, a four time beat on glass. All the hope and life drained from his face. His face set like stone, he finished sitting up. An old man that Katie had never seen came into view, trapped in some kind of a glass booth. The Doctor turned to the man, who waved.

"They gone then?" the man asked. "Yeah, good oh. If you could, uh, let me out?"

The Doctor nodded. "Yeah." Katie had heard him say that word so many times, but never with so much sadness. The man continued, seemingly oblivious to the Doctor's pain.

"This thing seems to be making a bit of a noise."

"The Master," the Doctor said, standing, "left the nuclear bolt running. It's gone into overload."

"And that's bad is it?" the man said. Katie realized just how stupid she must have sounded to the Doctor all those times she asked questions.

"No, cause all the excess radiation gets vented inside there," the Doctor said, nodding towards the glass case. "Vin vachi glass. Contains it. All 500,000 rads, about to flood that thing."

"Well. You'd better let me out then," the man said, trying to smile.

"Except it's gone critical," the Doctor told him, resignation underlining his words. "Touch one control and it floods." He pulled his sonic out of his coat, holding it. "Even this would set it off."

The old man looked down, understanding. Katie's heart warmed towards him just a bit as she saw him accept what fate had doled out. "I'm sorry."

"Sure," the Doctor said quietly, turning to the side as he put away the sonic.

"Just…leave me," the old man said. He was probably a grandfather. The Doctor looked back towards him, and Katie could see the love he had for the old man on his face.

"Okay, right then, I will," the Doctor said, frustration leeching into his voice. He paced, still talking. "Cause you had to go in there, didn't you? You had to go and get stuck, oh yes! Cause that's who you are, Wilfred," he continued, grief making his voice crack. "You were always this, waiting for me, all this time."

"No really, just leave me," Wilfred said, trying to get the Doctor to go. "I'm an old man Doctor, I've had my time."

"Well, exactly, look at you," the Doctor snapped, more anger coloring his speech. Katie stared almost horrified at the Doctor, trying to comprehend why he was acting this way, why he used such cutting words, why he was so…desperate. "Not remotely important! But me! I could do so much more! So much more!" he cried again, pounding his chest. He leaned onto a nearby desk, his voice sinking. "But this is what I get. My reward. But it's not fair!" he cried again, swiping everything off the desk. Katie could only stare, desperate to reach the Doctor and step into his place, die for him. She knew him too well; he wouldn't be able to walk away from this Wilfred. Her beloved Doctor, dying. And she couldn't save him, couldn't even comfort him, stand by him, tell him she would never leave.

The Doctor stood, panting. He and Wilfred looked at each other. "Oh. Oh, I've lived too long," the Doctor said quietly as he began to walk towards the glass booth. Wilfred started to try and dissuade him.

"No. No, no, please don't. No, no don't! Please don't! Please," he begged, his voice turning into sobs. The Doctor paused, his hand on the handle of another door into the booth. He looked at Wilfred.

"Wilfred. It's my honor," the Doctor said. Katie knew that statement came from the very bottom of his two hearts.

"Better be quick," he said, slipping into the booth. "Three, two, one," he finished, pressing a large button. There was a robotic whine as Wilfred hobbled out of his own side. A red light bathed the Doctor as he gritted his teeth in pain.

"Doctor!" Katie heard herself scream. She was suddenly right outside the booth, pounding on the glass, watching her friend crumble to the ground. She was kneeling, begging him to see her, her hand following his as it scraped down the glass.

* * *

><p><strong>Spoiler over<strong>

* * *

><p>"Doctor! Doctor please, you can't be dead. Doctor!" The image started to fade, the body of the Doctor becoming hidden behind swirling mist. Katie frantically ran her hands over the barrier, trying to find a way through. "No, no no no! Doctor! DOCTOR!"<p>

Whiteness, then Katie was back on the beach in Cardiff, doubled over on the sand, gasping as her soul was wracked with grief. She felt rather than saw Thought crouch down next to her. He laid his hand on the exposed part of her back, relishing her agony that was carried by the energy flooding over to him.

"Now, Kathryn. I want to ask you again: are you sure you want to resign yourself to this life?"

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	9. Chapter 9

"You bastard," Katie hissed. "You sick twisted son-of-a-bitch! You made me watch him die."

"I didn't make you do anything. This was a preview of what I will do to you, something you'll be agreeing to of your own free will."

"I hate you," Katie spat out, turning to glare at Thought, despising him all the more for having the gall to still use the Doctor's face. Images randomly popped into her head, other people she had despised, even for brief seconds. Her mind stopped spinning, landing on a picture of a Weeping Angel. Thought gasped, taking his hand off her back as his form rippled, shifting into that of a Weeping Angel. Katie could only stare at him, nearly speechless.

"What…how?"

A picture of Bradley was ripped to the front of her mind, and Thought changed into that shape. He laughed maliciously as blood fell onto the sand.

"You're good. You're very good. I always said you were in control of your own mind. Oh, these next years will be so interesting."

Katie stared, starting to see what he meant. She forced herself to picture Jack, and Thought changed into that shape. Katie began to laugh as she stood, triumph on her features.

"So that's all it is? For all your power and control, I only have to think of something and you look like it! Your greedy fingers are latched so firmly to my mind that anything I think of, you become. Oh, that is rich."

Thought grinned at her, standing up, his face turning back into Bradley. "Alright then. Show me. I know you want me dead. Make me into a cockroach and crush me like the bug you think I am."

Katie stared hard at Thought, the smile slowly leaving her face. His skin was a little browner than before, but that was all. Thought's smile widened as her hopes fell. "You can't, Gina. You can't do it because you have no emotions to tie to the picture. Now your friend Bradley. You have so much guilt tied to him, particularly the night he died. The Doctor has everything attached to his image, all the love and trust you can pack into a name. So, then, Kathryn, the only choice you really have is which face to look into each day; the boy you betrayed, or the man you abandoned."

Katie sucked in a deep breath, resisting the urge to sit down. She couldn't help the second thoughts dashing through her mind. She had figured that if she made the Doctor untouchable, she wouldn't have to see anything happen to him. She had never counted on the fact Thought would show her something like that, something that wasn't already in her mind.

"Of course, if you don't like either of those, I'm sure we could always use your family."

She snapped her head up, eyes cold. "Don't you dare touch those memories. Those are sacred recollections."

"Why? It isn't as if they were actually related to them. Father, Mother, Brother. Fancy names for roommates, boarders really."

"Anything good in my life is because of them. Leave those alone."

"If you turn yourself over, I can do what I want. Since you cared for them, I'm sure you wouldn't want to miss their funerals."

Katie paled. "You wouldn't."

"We could even stop by and visit the human you replaced. Just what sort of life did you leave her to?"

"Stop it."

"I'm sure she was successful, with a life founded on the death of your friend. A career, a family. Children and a husband, grandkids even. Of course, she could have ended up dead from suicide a year after you left. Or maybe she lived for years until she cracked under the strain later in life and turned into a serial killer, finally ending up on death row with blood dripping from her hands."

"Stop it."

"Your janitor friend, Margaret Healy. Another face, another life. Another death."

"Stop it!"

Thought raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you can handle this?" he said, the fact he had gone back to using the Doctor's face and voice only making it worse. "Complete surrender and a life of hell, just for a man that didn't exist to you until nine months ago? You spent only five of those with him. How well do you know him really? How many things have you seen him do that warrant such loyalty? How often has he really saved you?"

"He's saved worlds."

"Or has he destroyed them?" Thought asked, stepping closer. "You know that he could have easily tracked you here. TARDIS keeps records of every place she has ever visited. Punching in the last known co-ordinates is simple. You're putting everything on the line; your freedom, your sanity, your life, your hearts, your soul. If he's saved so many people that he's never even met, why hasn't he come back for you?"

Katie swallowed hard. "I erased the co-ordinates." Even as she said it, she knew the Doctor could have dug them out. Did he really want her gone? After so much... No, she couldn't think such things. She had told him to let her do this, and he would do as such. But he never had before.

"Before he could be the hero, or maybe he had to be. Now you're gone, and your dark secrets with you. This time he has your blessing to let you vanish as though you had never been, stray. What made you ever think he would want you to stay around?"

Katie was breathing hard, shaking her head, trying not to let doubts take root. "I—" The sound of TARDIS's engines cut the air. She stared as TARDIS appeared several hundred yards up the beach. The doors flung open, and the Doctor came jumping out, trench coat flaring like a cape. Katie's mouth turned up at the corner for the briefest of moments before she turned sharply to Thought.

"I agree," she said, her voice clear. "Swear to me you won't touch him, won't harm him in any way, and I'll accept. I will go through anything you set up, just let him alone."

Thought smiled thinly. "Agreement made."

* * *

><p>The Doctor slowed about ten yards from Katie and Thought, she standing slightly in front of him. He had one arm wrapped around her shoulder in a possessive fashion. The Doctor's stomach sunk, knowing that whatever had occurred, he was too late. Katie eyes shimmered with unspoken grief as she stood barefoot. This was one of the few items she ever looked her age, making her seem extremely young and vulnerable. He knew he had to try, had to make an attempt at saving her.<p>

The Doctor stopped, tucking his hands into his pockets. He found himself staring into his own face, but the sadistic glimmer in the eyes was something he had never seen before.

"Let her go," the Doctor demanded, his voice cold.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," Thought said, purring like a cat. "She's still got flavor, lots of memories to go."

"Take me instead."

Katie opened her mouth to protest. Thought squeezed her shoulder and she fell silent. Her expression pleaded with the Doctor to leave.

"I've invested a lot of time in her; what makes you a better choice?"

"You feed off memories. What sort of stories do you think someone like her could have?"

"I've learned that it doesn't matter so much about the age, but the amount of pain a person has gone through."

"Pain?" the Doctor asked, his eyebrows going up. "Painful memories?"

Thought shrugged. "Pain is a very strong emotion. The more a person has gone through, the higher the flavor. Guilt comes at a close second. Fear and anger are good as well."

The Doctor's laugh was short and harsh. "Then why hold onto her? Look at her. She's fifteen! She's too young to have any kind of real guilt stored up." The Doctor pointed to himself. "Take me; I've lived for nine hundred years. I've taken out whole planets, sent friends to their deaths. You haven't seen guilt—"

"He's old, and he's taken in too much," Katie interrupted. "He'll either have too strong a flavor or be stringy and tough. I'm still young, a lot of years left, plenty of room for mind games. I'm spry enough to give you a good fight; he's ancient and tired."

Thought looked between her and the Doctor as though contemplating something. "What else would you have to offer me?" he asked. "You would peter out after a few years. Kathryn here has a habit of not dying."

"My kind lives forever," the Doctor said intently. "And I'm the last one left. There's hundreds of her sort out there; a commonality really. If you're looking for a delicacy, then you'll want to be watching for me."

"It's certainly a tempting offer."

Katie whipped her head up to look at Thought. "Don't you dare."

"He is offering."

"You bastard!" Katie hissed out. She made a move as though to strike Thought, but he had already seen what she was going to do. He calmly stopped the elbow Katie tried to throw.

"We do have an agreement, Kathryn."

Katie stayed tense for a second longer, then forced herself to relax. Thought set both hands on her shoulders, again staking a claim on her.

"Agreement?" the Doctor asked. "Kathryn, you didn't."

"I couldn't let him hurt you," she said, her head hanging down. "Now you're safe, and I can survive."

"You can't."

"I just did."

The Doctor and Katie locked eyes. The resignation and foreknowledge of pain her face was somehow blotted out, as though knowing that he would live free of this creature really would help her pull through. The Doctor turned to Thought, who still looked like him. Thought was smiling, and the Doctor knew that smile. It was the one he always felt like wearing when he had another trick to play. The Doctor just had to force him to show it.

"Thought—if that is your name—if this is the last chance I've got to see her, and probably you, I've got a couple of questions. Always curious and everything."

"Go right ahead, Doctor."

"What exactly are you going to do to her?"

"A simple rotation, a pattern really. One that will always shift, but the pieces will remain. Fleeting moments of ecstasy before drowning her in the stored pain and guilt in her mind. The most interesting parts will be her time spent in synch with the rest of time."

The Doctor asked the question he knew Katie had to be thinking. "She'll come out of the Rift?"

"Of course. I can easily follow her, and she needs to find new memories somewhere. Thing is, she'll never know where she'll be placed or when I'll show up to pull her out. Always wondering when it will happen. You might even see her again, if your paths happen to cross. And then there are the stretches of time alone with herself. She doesn't really need me to let her own mind overwhelm her."

"What do you plan to do with her once she's finished?"

Katie flashed the Doctor an unreadable look.

"Finished?"

"Yeah, finished. She's got a strong mind, and she's young, but it won't really take that long before she breaks. What will do with her after that?"

"What I do when she's empty is no longer your concern, Doctor."

"Well, I suppose that's true," the Doctor said, putting his hands in his pockets. "Except that I'm curious as to where you'll go."

"Me?"

"Yeah. Kathryn is Kathryn! Not many who can surpass her, though I can't really speak for myself when it comes to taste."

Thought smiled again. The Doctor could tell the trump card was closer to the top of the deck. "I'll just have to find someone better," Thought said.

"Better? Better than a child willingly subjecting herself to whatever you may come up with, just to protect someone she barely knows? I don't know how you would find a better meal."

"Oh, very easily Doctor." He tilted his head slightly to the side. "It is touching, how she was willing to go through it again just to protect you. I'm afraid it isn't going to work though. Now you'll just have to wonder if you ever could have saved her. It will make you taste that much better when I return for you someday."

"You'll what?"

Thought looked down at Katie. The Doctor kept his face blank, knowing that Thought had just revealed his hand. "I'm planning to come back for him. It's not like you'd expect me to just let someone like him saunter off."

"We had a deal."

"Those are meant to be broken, Kathryn. I don't have to ask my food whether or not it's going to let me feed. It may take a century, but eventually you will break, or come near it. All I need to do is have you watch him snap in two. Your capacity for hatred is even greater than his, and hatred is the strongest emotion, especially hatred for an enemy. I'll use you until you're empty, and then charge you again. That's the life you're slated for, Kathryn Moore."

Katie turned back towards the Doctor, but she didn't look at him. "Then use me now."

Thought gasped sharply, releasing Katie and staggering backwards. Katie turned slowly, holding her head high as she watched him. The Doctor stared at Thought as his appearance changed. The trench coat vanished, and the blue suit turned brown and torn. Wounds appeared on his face.

"You…can't…" Thought choked out, intense pain on his face.

"You wanted pain," Katie grated out. "You wanted me to watch him die. You wanted to torment my mind and feel the agony from it. Well feel it now!"

"You can't do this," Thought gasped out. "You can't kill another one. I know you, Kathryn Moore, Kavrin, Gina Alexis O'Connner, Gre—"

"I'd rather see him dying the rest of my life than let you take him!"

"Then kill me," Thought said, goading her from his position on the sand. "You can do it. Kill your Doctor, watch him die again. Just picture it, remember it. Every moment of his death, right up until the second he stopped moving. Kill him as you did Bradley. Let your hate pour through and kill me!"

"Hate won't kill you, creature."

Thought got a puzzled look for a brief moment. "Then—" He gasped as Katie spoke again, curling tighter with every word spoken.

"He is my life, and I will see time erased before I let—you—near—him! FEEL IT!"

The Doctor stood rooted to the spot. Thought was gasping like a fish, twisting in pain as wave after wave of emotion hit him. Katie's eyes were flashing with purple lightning, and silver smoke seemed to drift from her skin.

Whatever was happening, it had to do with Katie's memories, her emotions. Time energy and mental waves were intersecting and destroying. All of everything Katie had in her was being channeled and amplified, run through a single source.

"Kathryn, stop now."

She shook her head at the Doctor's words. Her voice warbled somewhere between her own and the Doctor's, the words of both she and Thought coming out. "I can't. He's still there. I can't stop. I won't stop. He's still latched on. I can't stop it. He won't let go. I won't let go. He won't let go."

"Thought, let go of her," the Doctor called. "Let go of her and return to the Rift."

"Never," Thought gasped out, fighting to the last. "I will never give up on her, Doctor. Listen to me now, Kathryn T. Moore. Your fate has been scrawled across time itself! Your Rahki masters will return for you, and on that day you will rip your Doctor's hearts from his chest, tearing the universe as you do so. You will die a thousand times in a thousand ways, and you will kill him!"

Katie's face froze again and the colors intensified, all flowing towards Thought like a liquid lightning storm. "Better he should die by my hand than you have him."

All expression drained from Thought's face. "How can you mean that?"

"Because I love him."

Thought moved as though to speak again, and then washed away like a flood of weak light. Katie's transporter fell to the sand with a quiet thump.

Katie turned and fainted. The Doctor stepped forward, catching her effortlessly. He let her down gently, cradling her like a child. His child.

"Don't let me go. Don't leave me. Don't leave me."

The Doctor pressed a kiss into her hair. "Never."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p> 


	10. Chapter 10

"You're sure you won't stay?"

Katie smiled at Tosh. "After all your work at putting the chip together? No, my ride's here and it's time for me to be off. That thing won't be back, so there's one less worry for you. Speaking of the chip, did you manage to get it sent off?"

"I think it found its own way, actually," Tosh said. "We put the wallet together, stuck the chip in it, turned around not a minute later and it was gone."

Katie winked. "Time takes care of itself very well, doesn't it? How'd you manage with the money though? That motorcycle cost an awful lot, and computers aren't exactly cheap."

"We took it out of your salary," Jack said. Katie looked at him questioningly.

"My salary? Since when have you paid me?"

"Since I calculated the hours you spent shelving and writing programs," Ianto said. "I showed them to Jack and he agreed that you should be paid for what you did."

Katie wrinkled her nose. "Bummer. I was sort of hoping I was stealing it from Owen."

Owen held up his wallet. "It wasn't actually my wallet. Not sure why you thought it would be."

"You're the only one who seemed thick enough to take out that much money at one time. Oh, and speaking of you being thick, be careful when you dispose of those diseases. Don't try keeping any for future testing or use. Just treat it like any other deadly illness and you'll be fine."

Katie smiled at Tosh again, this time a little sadly, and gave her shoulder a quick squeeze, the closest Katie could ever really get to a hug.

"Well, TARDIS is primed and the Doctor is impatient. It's been fun. Okay, I went mad and nearly killed you all in that first week, but otherwise I've actually enjoyed it. We'll have to do it again sometime." She gave an American salute to the TORCHWOOD team. With good wishes ringing in her ears, Katie stepped into TARDIS, waving goodbye one last time.

The Doctor watched from the console as Katie closed the door. Once it was firmly shut, the Doctor started piloting TARDIS away. Katie sank down the door into a sitting position, her eyes nearly blank, and the usual fire barely a spark. She didn't even touch the transporter that she had reclaimed and was once again wearing. That last show for TORCHWOOD had completely drained her. Once in the vortex, the Doctor set TARDIS on auto pilot. He looked at Katie, still staying by the console.

"How are you feeling?"

Katie pondered the question before answering. "Tired," she said with a nod. "Very tired." The Doctor understood exactly what she meant by that. Sleep wouldn't do her much good. Doing that now would bring nightmares that only made it worse.

"Any place in particular to go next?"

"What would you suggest?" she asked with a smile.

"Oh, there's everywhere!" the Doctor answered with his usual bounce as he began to run around the controls again. "There's one planet, Haref, where the people actually have wings. Pleasant enough, but they've always got their heads in the clouds, in more ways than one. Oh, the Jutt Sea! The water's clear enough you can see all the way to the bottom! Or, what about 1969! Got the moon landing then, brilliant event. We could watch it from the moon!"

Katie nodded, considering. "Sounds good. We should go there sometime. Got any places with funny weather patterns?"

"Yeah, right in the middle of the Arsil system. The most fantastic weather, if you're a meteorologist. The nights are clear as anything, with a minimum of ten moons at any time of the year. The sun is so hot and the planet so wet that the sun evaporates the water into clouds before you can even see it. Every day, without fail, it rains hard and just stops at night. The multiple moons reflect and amplify the sunlight to such an extent that the plants grow by moonlight instead of sunlight. Sunrise is downright dull, but moonrise is always magnificent."

"Are there big fields and tall trees?"

"Yeah, think so."

"Can we go there? During the day?"

"Be a bit damp."

Katie laughed softly. "Oh, that doesn't matter. I always liked the rain."

The Doctor grinned at her. "Your wish is my command."

* * *

><p>"The Arsil system, planet Groxi 9, earth year 80,678. It's just after dawn, and the year's biggest storm is going to be right on top of us in one minute and…ten seconds." He looked over at her, grinning again. "I've even arranged for lightening."<p>

Katie hadn't moved from her place by the door. She smiled softly. "Sounds perfect." She pulled herself up, still in the same outfit she had faced Thought in. The Doctor interrupted her as she placed her hand on the door.

"Won't you need a coat?" She looked back at him over her shoulder, an enigmatic glimmer in her eyes, the previous faint spark starting to light a new fire, a stronger fire.

"Can't feel the rain if you have a coat, and if you can't feel the rain, how will you ever be able to tell the difference from the clear days?"

She flung open the doors and stepped out, not bothering to close them behind her. The Doctor walked to the threshold, but no further. For a moment, he wished he had someone nearby to paint the scene. Katie almost looked like she was built for this planet. Her dark blue jeans and black top were a sharp but pleasant contrast to her pale skin color, and the thick blue green grass and the redwood-like trees married perfectly with her waist-length dark red hair, and her slim feminine shape was a small, simple change to the straight lines of the plants and rain. The soft light that came through the thick clouds only helped the scene. The Doctor caught himself wondering if he'd have to fend off any potential suitors as their adventures continued, then decided she could do that job herself quite well.

She stopped about fifty yards out into the field. The purple-red lightning danced across the sky, and the white flash of Katie's teeth gave evidence of her wide smile as she began to spin about in the fierce rain, twirling in time with nature.

The Doctor smiled, starting to turn away in order to leave her to her thoughts. But just as he was about to close the door, a loud peal of thunder almost covered up a sound. _Almost_ covered up the sound. A sound the Doctor would think of in his many remaining years as one of the best he had ever heard.

Katie had laughed. Not a laugh used to put a person at ease, or a release of tension, or a forced laugh, or a giggle. It was a laugh of pure joy and excitement, a laugh that was full of life, full of pain, full of memories. It was a laugh of survival and victory and defeat, a laugh that challenged death and destruction to try and overwhelm her again, a signal she was ready for it.

It was a human laugh.

Over the course of the day, which was about thirteen earth hours, the Doctor kept himself busy, fixing small things that didn't really need to be fixed, wandering the halls, even baking cookies just because. He would open the main doors to check on Katie every few hours. She was constantly moving, sometimes up a tree, sometimes dancing again, once sitting on the edge of the forest watching TARDIS.

Finally, the storm ended. The Doctor stepped out slightly after moonrise. Katie was lying on the grass, watching the stars. The Doctor walked over and sat down next to her, ignoring the wet ground. He dropped a bright silver key next to her. "Don't leave this behind again."

Katie picked it up, rubbing the TARDIS key between her fingers, obviously contemplating all that it stood for. After a pause, she smiled and she stuck it into her soggy jeans pocket. A comfortable silence hung between them. "You can ask if you want," Katie said after a while, her sharp Californian speech replaced by a soft Texas drawl.

"Ask what?"

"Any of the dozens of questions I know you have."

The Doctor leaned back on his elbows, considering that. It was true he always wondered about things, but that's just who he was.

"Where do you get the accent?"

"I used to live in Texas. I was born there, and lived under those skies until I was five. Went back every summer after we moved. The only reason I sound like a California child most of the time is because I couldn't take the teasen' anymore, so I learned to sound like the rest of them."

"Why'd you move?"

"Don't really remember. I only know I cried enough tears to flood the Rio Grande when we did." She glanced up at him. "Does the sound bother you?"

"Nah, just curious. I rather like it, actually. It suits you."

"Time can be re-written, yeah?" Katie asked, turning towards him.

The Doctor wondered if he should answer the question as he laid back, hands under his head. "If it isn't a fixed point. But it takes a lot of travel, a lot of experience, before you can tell the difference and know when history can be changed."

"But it can be re-written? Changed, like someone stepping in when it's someone else's time?"

"Kathryn—"

"Can it be re-written?"

"Why do you want to know?"

Katie turned back to the sky. "Because I need to know if I can."

A pause. "I almost watched you give up your life for me."

"I would have lived. I can't die, remember?"

"It would have been hell for you," the Doctor said. Neither of them looked at the other for fear of what they might see in the other's face. "Why would you even put yourself in such a spot?"

"Because I had to."

The sincerity in Katie's tone took the Doctor off guard. Did she still feel that she owed him something? Or was there something else that had brought on her actions?

Katie changed the subject, though it was really the same. "What do you think he meant, that stuff about the Rahki coming back and the universe tearing."

"Oh, probably just a last attempt at saving himself."

"You don't really believe that."

"Someone like you isn't made on a whim, Kathryn. It takes careful planning and a lot of tests. You're special in more ways than one, and some day they'll come searching for you."

"You know, you could just say, 'Yes Kathryn, I really do think the lying rattler wanted to cheat death.'"

"If you don't want the honest answer, don't press for it."

Katie wrinkled her nose at him. "Nine hundred three years old, and you still can't figure out a woman. No wonder you need female companions. Someone has to have the gentle side."

"I wouldn't exactly call your approach gentle."

Katie seemed as though she was going to say something, then changed the statement. "You do know that when I said that I loved you, I didn't mean I love love you."

"Of course not."

"It was more a family thing, father-daughter sort of."

"Yeah, course."

Katie narrowed her eyes at him playfully, scoffing before returning to the sky. "You are full of it, you know that? Every once in a while, a girl comes along that doesn't fall at your feet in worship."

"Why would they?" the Doctor asked, genuinely curious. Katie laughed again, a low one that was still full of humanity.

"Well, you have a magical box that goes through time and space, you wear tight suits and have spikey hair that most women would love to run their fingers through, for the most part you're a gentleman, you have large brown eyes full of mysteries, flirt as easily as you speak, you're completely brilliant, and really you're rather sort of marvelous."

The Doctor nodded, smiling, not protesting a single comment. Katie poked him gently in the side, grinning at him.

"But you're too skinny, completely insane, dangerous to a fault, and you are way too old for me. Even if you were the age you looked, you're still about twice my age. No, you make a good brother, a fantastic friend, and a great dad, but that's the end of that. I picture more of a guy a few years older than me, smart, with flesh on him. Not fat, but you can tell he's strong. Not a twig like you."

The Doctor went into a pensive silence. Brother, Dad. Words that used to mean so much so long ago, things he hadn't been called in even longer. Brother, Dad. He used to be both. Not anymore.

He studied Katie out of the corner of his eye. She had gone back to staring at the stars. Such a puzzle, so much messed up inside, so much she had never said. There might be more buried in her soul, more crimes to her name. She was violent, proud, smart, inspired confidence in all, and captured hearts of men and women she barely glanced at. She was passionate, loyal, brave, and strong, always ready to die for others, smiled easily, and showed no pain. She tried not to kill but it never seemed to work, and when she did kill it seemed so easy for her to do, and only afterwards would he notice the added weight of the blood that she would never speak of.

The Doctor looked away when he realized he might as well have been describing himself. They were the same, so alike she might as well be part of him. After the events of the day, he couldn't imagine losing her. Though he hadn't raised her, he was all she had, and she was all he had. She was indeed his daughter, adopted but no less loved.

A child in the TARDIS again, someone to teach and raise. Hadn't been one of those for several hundred years, at least nine regenerations. Could he handle it? Could she?

A heartbeat later, Katie turned to the Doctor, asking, "You'll always come back for me, yah?"

He looked back at her. He saw more than a request for travel in her eyes. She was asking him for a home, someplace safe to hide, and a safe friend—no, a family member to trust in. She was lost and searching for a firm hold in something. She was a lost child begging for direction from someone who could really care about what happened. Not just a friend and protector, but a father. Not a parent to replace the ones she had lost, but a person to count on to want her no matter what.

The Doctor smiled at her. "I'll always find you. Always."

Katie looked back up at the stars, a pleased smile on her face. She frowned slightly. "I need a phone."

"A phone?"

"Yeah, a phone with a speed dial to TARDIS, and then I'm going to memorize the number. I am not getting stuck on a planet for four months again. Do you have any idea how frustrating it was to be stuck in one time and place after running around the universe, yet be surrounded by extraterrestrial stuff? I nearly went off my rocker more than once."

"I was exiled for three years on earth once. TARDIS was sabotaged so she couldn't move at all."

"How could you bear it?"

"Oh, I kept busy. I worked for humans, actually. A group called UNIT. I imagine I'll meet them again someday. I wore rather fancy dress then; opera capes and velvet suits with lace cuffs and silk scarves. Very posh. But I had this beautiful yellow car. Named her Bessie. Still miss her."

"Bessie is a good name for a car." Katie shifted over a little closer to the Doctor, tilting her head so it touched his shoulder. The Doctor sensed that for the first time, she really felt safe with him, not just physically, but deep in her hearts. "So, Old Man of Time," she said teasing him lightly. "Show me where we're going next."

The Doctor smiled and pointed upwards. "I think that one right…there."

* * *

><p>*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*<p>

I hope you enjoyed this two-part cross-over. I was able to get these last two stories out really fast, but don't expect anything nearly as speedy with my next ones. I was just really feeling it with these last one.

My next story should be out in a few days, no later than a week from now. The title? "Stuff of Legends." Let's see if any of you readers will venture a guess as to what it's about.


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